White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said she will leave the Trump administration at the end of August, to spend more time with her two young kids.
Leavitt, 28, the youngest person to serve as White House press secretary, called her decision “bittersweet” in a post on social media Wednesday, shortly after President Donald Trump announced her departure.
The announcement came months after Leavitt returned to the White House briefing room after the birth of her second child, a daughter, Viviana, in May. She has a son who is two years old as well.
Leavitt said she decided to leave because the demands of being press secretary had become hard to balance with her role as a mom.
“The truth is, since returning to the White House following the birth of my daughter, I have felt in my heart that I cannot be the best mom my two young children deserve while devoting the constant time, energy and attention that the White House Press Secretary is required to give, and that is why I ultimately have made the bittersweet decision to depart the White House and embark on a new chapter in my life,” she wrote.
Trump did not name a replacement for the high-profile post but said Leavitt would remain in his political orbit.
“Karoline will now be one of my top outside advisors, and an influential voice within the Republican Party, as we work to defy History, and win the Midterm Elections, conclusively,” Trump said in his own social media post.
Leavitt, who was a spokesman for MAGA Inc., the pro-Trump super PAC, and later worked on Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.
During her political career, she also ran unsuccessfully for Congress in New Hampshire in 2022. She won the Republican primary in a crowded field of 10 candidates but lost the general election to Democratic incumbent Chris Pappas.
Leavitt previously worked in the White House press office during Trump’s first term, and then served as communications director to New York Republican Representative Elise Stefanik.
Leavitt held fewer formal briefings during her tenure as press secretary than some of her predecessors.
During official events and overseas trips Trump often spoke directly to reporters, and Leavitt appeared frequently on Fox News and other conservative media to defend the administration’s policies and attack Democrats and the mainstream press.
Trump’s first administration featured several high-profile press secretaries, such as Sean Spicer and Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who became known for their combative exchanges with reporters.
Stephanie Grisham never held a formal White House briefing, while Kayleigh McEnany routinely used briefings to go after the news media.