Karoline Leavitt: six key takeaways from 20 months as Trump’s press secretary

Shrai Popat in Washington and Guardian staff Wed, August 12, 2026 at 10:41 PM UTC

127

The press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, during the daily press briefing at the White House on 12 November 2025 in Washington DC.Photograph: Win McNamee/Getty Images

Donald Trump’s most prominent spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, is leaving the White House. The US president announced on Wednesday that his press secretary would depart at the end of the month.

Leavitt, who has served in the role since Trump’s returned to power in January 2025, won regular plaudits from her boss for her unflinching defense of his agenda, but faced frequent criticism for amplifying misinformation and curbing press freedom.

Related: Karoline Leavitt will step down as White House press secretary, Trump says

Here are some of the key takeaways from her 20 months in the job.

Leavitt presided over an influx of rightwing media pundits in the briefing room

Leavitt, 28, attempted to take control over which outlets would serve in the White House press pool – a group of dedicated media who cover the president’s daily movements. The White House Correspondents’ Association, an independent body which manages the pool, rejected the proposal.

Her team also introduced a “new media” seat at the White House, which often includes conservative commentators who are friendly with the Trump administration.

Leavitt was also a defendant in the lawsuit, which saw her press team block the from serving in the press pool in retaliation for the outlet refusing to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America”.

Leavitt was one of Trump’s most loyal foot soldiers

During his first term, Donald Trump cycled through five press secretaries. His first, Sean Spicer, left the White House after six months. Leavitt, however, proved a key ally for Trump – often receiving praise. However, she is not the president’s longest-serving press secretary. Sarah Huckabee Sanders served for almost two years in the first Trump White House.

This loyalty stretched to defending Trump’s ties with Epstein …

As questions mounted over Trump’s former relationship with the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, an email emerged in November 2025 in which Epstein described Trump as the “dog that hasn’t barked”.

Asked whether the president had ever spent hours at Epstein’s house with a victim, Leavitt replied during a press briefing: “These emails prove absolutely nothing other than the fact that President Trump did nothing wrong.”

Advertisement

The Trump administration “has done more with respect to transparency when it comes to Jeffrey Epstein than any administration ever”, she argued, as it faced growing pressure to be more transparent over its handling of documents tied to Epstein.

… and attacking reporters trying to hold the White House to account

When Renee Good was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer amid a crackdown in Minneapolis in January 2026, Leavitt pushed back at a reporter questioning her over ICE during a briefing.

“Why was Renee Good unfortunately and tragically killed?” she asked a reporter. “Because an ICE agent acted recklessly and killed her unjustifiably,” they replied.

Leavitt shot back: “OK, so you’re a biased reporter with a leftwing opinion … Because you’re a leftwing hack. You’re not a reporter, posing in this room as a journalist. And it’s so clear by the premise of your question. And you and the people of the media who have such biases but fake like you’re a journalist, you shouldn’t even be sitting in that seat.”

Addressing the deadly shooting of Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis later that month, however, Leavitt refused to endorse Trump adviser Stephen Miller’s slander of Pretti as a “would-be assassin”, and described his death as a “tragedy”.

She faced criticism for her attacks on Gen Z

As Trump and his administration tried to brand a wave of leftwing winners in Democratic primaries “communist” candidates, Leavitt argued in July that such politicians were succeeding because many Gen Z voters were used to “getting everything handed to them”.

“Unfortunately, I do because this generation, my generation, I hate to say it, Gen Z and those younger than me have been raised with just silver spoons in their mouths,” she told Fox News, in a interview that sparked a backlash online.

It prompted a rare rowback from Leavitt, who accused her critics of misconstruing her comments, and said that “many Gen Z Americans” were “hardworking, entrepreneurial, and deeply patriotic”.

In a way, her tenure was historic

At 27, Leavitt was the youngest White House press secretary in history. And when she announced she was pregnant in December last year, she became the first ever expectant press secretary.

Leavitt delayed her parental leave to deliver the administration’s first on‑camera response to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting in April. She returned to work in July.

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Breaking”