President-elect Donald Trump tapped Karoline Leavitt, one of the spokespeople who helped him get elected and is aiding in his return to office, as his incoming White House press secretary on Friday. At 27 years old, she’ll be the youngest person to ever serve in the role and the first from Generation Z.
“Karoline is smart, tough, and has proven to be a highly effective communicator,” Trump said in a statement. “I have the utmost confidence she will excel at the podium, and help deliver our message to the American People as we, Make America Great Again.”
“Thank you, President Trump, for believing in me,” Leavitt wrote on X. “I am humbled and honored. Let’s MAGA!” she added, including an American flag emoji.
Prior to Leavitt, Ron Ziegler, then 29, was the youngest press secretary after Richard Nixon gave him the position in 1969.
Leavitt entered into Trump’s world at a young age, working as an assistant press secretary for the former president during his first term—from 2017 to 2021. After President Joe Biden’s win in 2020, Leavitt went to work for US Representative Elise Stefanik, a Republican from New York. Trump recently nominated Stefanik to be the US ambassador to the United Nations, so she and Leavitt may work together under one administration soon.
In 2022, Leavitt ran for office herself—winning the Republican primary for a US House seat from New Hampshire. She lost in the general election to Democrat Chris Pappas.
Then, when the former president decided to run for a third time, Leavitt joined the 2024 campaign and has continued to make a name for herself in the MAGA echelons as an ardent supporter of Trump who isn’t afraid to be combative against media members the camp finds unfriendly.
She’s called NBC, 60 Minutes, ABC’s David Muir, CNN and “every MSM outlet,” amongst other organizations, the “fake news.” She wrote that “The American people overwhelmingly distrust the media for good reason.” “The mainstream media is propaganda for the elites (Democrat Party),” she claimed in a 2021 post on X, complete with exclamation point emojis.
“Throughout the campaign, Ms. Leavitt adopted Mr. Trump’s disdain for the mainstream media in frequent appearances on major television networks and conservative outlets,” the New York Times’ Michael Gold writes of the press secretary pick. “Mr. Trump was pleased with her performance and looked to her as a trusted voice to defend him on television, according to people who worked on the Trump campaign.”
Ahead of the first presidential debate between Trump and Biden in June, CNN’s Kasie Hunt halted an interview with Leavitt on air after she berated the network’s moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash.
After Trump surrogate and stand-up comic Tony Hinchcliffe referred to Puerto Rico as “garbage” during his time slot at the Madison Square Garden MAGA rally, Leavitt’s response contrasted with the more tame comments provided by others in Trump’s communications team.
While senior Trump advisor Danielle Alvarez responded to TIME magazine by saying that “The joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign,” Leavitt took a different route.
“You do know he’s a COMEDIAN, and these are JOKES, right????” Leavitt wrote in an email, also to TIME.
Leavitt will join Steven Cheung, Trump’s chief campaign spokesman who the president-elect also asked to be his White House communications director, as two of the most front-facing members of Trump’s incoming communications apparatus. Throughout his time alongside Trump, Cheung has “issued provocative, at times offensive, statements attacking Mr. Trump’s political enemies and the news media,” the Times reported on Friday.
During his last term as president, Trump cycled through four different press secretaries—Sean Spicer, Sarah Sanders, Stephanie Grisham, and Kayleigh McEnany.
Sanders is now the Governor of Arkansas; Grisham became a leading voice against the former president this cycle, giving her vote to Vice President Kamala Harris and saying that Trump has “no empathy, no morals and no fidelity to the truth;” and McEnany remains a firm supporter of Trump and called Leavitt “the perfect pick!” on Friday.
As for Spicer, this week before Trump announced his choice of Leavitt, he penned an op-ed for The Hill—offering some tips and tricks for whoever would be Trump’s press secretary.
“Get a dog. Okay, maybe wait until you leave the White House, but know that the folks in the briefing room are not your friends,” he writes. “They are some of the most transactional people you will ever meet. The White House Correspondents Association is an outdated left-wing organization. It’s your briefing, not theirs. You set the rules, not them.”
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