Karoline Leavitt to Leave White House at Month’s End; Will Move to Outside Adviser Role
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt will depart her post at the end of the month to spend more time with her family and transition into an outside advisory role, President Trump announced. The exit reshuffles a top communications job weeks before midterms.
President Trump announced that Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, will leave her role at the end of the month and continue as an outside communications adviser to his political movement. The announcement, posted on the president’s social platform, said Leavitt will remain an influential voice for the Republican Party while stepping back from the daily demands of the briefing room.
Leavitt, 28, became the youngest person to hold the White House press secretary job after serving on Trump’s 2024 campaign and in the administration’s press office during his earlier term. She returned to the podium last month after a brief maternity leave; in a social-media post she said she was stepping down to spend more time with her two young children and described the decision as “bittersweet.”
Her departure removes one of the administration’s most visible communicators less than three months before the November midterm elections. Leavitt and White House communications director Steven Cheung reshaped the administration’s media posture, including changes to press access and a more selective approach to who covers the president—moves that drew both praise from allies and criticism from press advocates.
News accounts note that Leavitt’s maternity leave and the White House’s handling of briefings while she was away revealed how central she had become to the administration’s message discipline. Reporters who covered the White House during that period said briefings were less frequent and officials rotated behind the lectern, a pattern that could recur depending on the new press strategy.
White House officials have not named a successor and there was no immediate indication of how the communications team will reassign responsibilities. Finding a replacement who can navigate the administration’s combative media approach and court conservative-friendly outlets—while also maintaining relations with national news organizations—presents a short-term operational challenge.
Several outlets reported that the White House plans to keep Leavitt in its political orbit as an outside adviser, meaning she could continue to shape campaign messaging for the president and allied groups without the constraints of a government communications post. That shift would move a prominent messenger from an official podium into a partisan role as the midterm campaign season accelerates.
Why it matters
A vacancy in the White House press office at this point in the election calendar matters because it affects how the administration explains policy and responds to fast-moving developments; Leavitt’s move also underscores the blurring of official and political communications in this White House.
What to watch
Watch who fills the podium and whether the administration restores more regular briefings or leans further into controlled, sympathetic outlets; also track whether Leavitt’s role outside the White House becomes a central organizing voice for the Republican midterm effort.