According to a report by The Washington Post on August 12th, White House Press Secretary Carolyn Mlence will leave the Trump administration at the end of August. This is one of the most notable departures of high-ranking officials since Trump's second term in office, and there are less than three months left before the midterm elections.
28-year-old Leavit is the youngest White House press secretary in American history, and she was also the first press secretary to have children during her tenure. She has always been a loyal advisor to President Donald Trump, playing a highly visible role in Trump’s efforts to reimagine the presidential position and undermine public trust in traditional media reporting. This included taking tough measures to control which news organizations were allowed to interview at the White House.
Trump posted on Truth Social on Wednesday, stating that Leavit would resign in order to have more time with her children. Leavit is expecting a daughter in May this year, along with a two-year-old son. Trump said that she will continue to serve as an external advisor in the future.
Trump wrote: "Caroline will become one of my top external advisors, and also an influential voice within the Republican Party. We will work to break historical patterns and win the midterm elections decisively."
Levy, in a long social media post, said that this job was "a honor and adventure of her life," but after returning to work this summer after her maternity leave, she decided to leave the Trump administration.
She wrote, “In fact, since returning to the White House after her daughter was born, I have felt that if I continued to invest the time, energy, and focus required for the position of White House press secretary, I would not be able to be the best mother for my two young children. For this reason, I finally made this decision that leaves me with mixed feelings: leaving the White House and starting a new chapter in my life.”
The White House has not yet announced who will replace Leavit. One of her deputies, Abigail Jackson, also resigned this month, making the White House’s personnel arrangements even more complex. During Leavit’s maternity leave, several cabinet ministers took turns holding irregular press conferences to replace her.
During Trump's first presidency, Levitt worked as an intern at the White House. After graduating from college, she joined the White House press team, working under Trump's fourth press secretary, Kellyanne McDonnald. After Trump lost the election in 2020, she served as the communications director for New York State Republican Representative Elise Stefanik. In 2022, 25-year-old Levitt ran for Congress in New Hampshire but was defeated by Democratic Representative Chris Pappas. Thereafter, she began appearing on television shows representing Trump's political action committee, MAGA Inc., and gradually rose to the position of national press secretary for Trump's campaign team.
On July 10, 2024, during the intense campaign activities of President Trump, Levitt gave birth to her first son. Three days later, Trump was shot in Butler, Pennsylvania, and Levitt returned to work immediately.
After Trump returned to the White House, Leavit became well-known for her extremely fast speech delivery during press conferences. At these conferences, she conveyed Trump's messages and often engaged in intense verbal battles with reporters in front of the camera. She also played a key role in major changes to the White House press conference setup and the system of presidential press corps members. The presidential press corps consists of a group of journalists who take turns interviewing the president.
In the early stages of Trump's second term, Levitt invited online influencers and podcast hosts to join the traditional Washington journalists. At the beginning of each press conference, he would first allow journalists sitting in the "new media" seat to ask questions. This seat was often assigned to right-wing online influencers who openly supported Trump.
The White House also took control of deciding which journalists could be included in the presidential press corps. For decades, this task was handled by an independent White House Press Association. The White House has limited the reporting rights of news agencies such as the Associated Press and Reuters, while giving more opportunities for interviews to media and online influencers who support Trump.
Levy is one of the most frequent voices for Trump in cable TV news programs, appearing on Fox News numerous times. On Monday evening, she shared on Instagram that after getting the children to bed, she went to a news interview vehicle on her driveway and joined the Fox News show "Hannity".
In the show, she criticized the Democratic Party and claimed that Trump’s policies made it possible for Americans to live at a “more affordable cost” – a claim that does not match the inflation reports released by the Trump administration itself.
Lavitt promised in a post announcing her resignation on Wednesday that after leaving the White House, she would continue to 'actively speak out for MAGA and the Republican Party' in her new role.
She wrote: “Our country is facing a survival threat from an increasingly extreme Democratic Party, who attempt to destroy everything great about America. I believe that everyone who cares about this country has a responsibility to fight back against this threat. My battle is entering a new stage, but it is far from over.”
