Left To Perish On Trump's Death Plane, Leavitt Gives Notice As Press Secretary
Karoline Leavitt and her infant son
The political news cycle becomes glacial and petty in August, and I am here for it.
Why? Because, with the exception of this week’s primaries (farewell for now, Francesca Hong!), which continue to fuel pointless debates about what the Democratic Party should be and to whom, there is not even a gridlocked Congress to write about. Congress has gone home on its annual five-week August recess, mandated by federal law in 1970 because, according to one source, “there were many younger lawmakers with children coming into Congress who wanted a more predictable legislative schedule and designated vacation times.” Everyone will be back by mid-September—well, maybe not Mitch McConnell, but everyone else.
But it’s always big news when the President’s press secretary leaves, right? In the Department of “You Can’t Have It All, Even If God Loves You,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is leaving her job lying to, and terrorizing, the White House press corps. Is this a surprise?
Yes and no.
Admittedly, the timing is weird: Leavitt had just returned from maternity leave, and you would think that after spending nine weeks as a mother of two she would have not done that unless she thought she had the support at home to hack it. And I am quite sure that Trump leaving her on the decoy plane in Ankara to be shot down by Iranian missiles did not put the thought in her head. Or it may have been the final straw. After everything she had done for him, Trump left Leavitt behind to die but let Natalie Harp live.
At 26, Leavitt was the youngest PressSec in history, and if anyone had the stamina to simultaneously mother two children under two and Donald Trump, it was her. In 2024, she returned to her job with the Trump campaign one week after giving birth to her son in July, and this time she took six weeks off. Clearly this was a sign she was slowing down, but we can all agree that even with paid help, caring for two children under 25-months, one of whom is an infant, is hard to do well when you have a globe-trotting, seven day a week 16-hour a day job—and your boss calls you incessantly.
Citing a report in the Daily Mail, Edith Olmsted at The New Republic writes that Leavitt has been trying to get out for some time:
Two sources told the Mail that Leavitt’s decision, announced Wednesday, had been months in the making. “She was just trying to figure out how to politely step down with [Trump’s] blessing,” one of the sources said.
Another source told the Mail that Leavitt realized she needed to leave after returning from maternity leave. “First week back she realized she wasn’t feeling it anymore,” the source said.
Yet another source told Mail that Leavitt had been experiencing severe “burnout” from her job.
Arguably, that baby was Leavitt’s ticket out. Maybe that was Usha Vance’s strategy too: The more you can make an argument for staying home, the less implicated in fascism and corruption you are.Who’s waiting in the wings to take Leavitt’s place?
Rumor has it that CNN’s conservative commentator Scott Jennings is a top candidate. Martin Holmes of TV Insider cites a New York Post story that also puts these folks in the mix: Alina Habba, a former Trump attorney who now has a weird job called “Senior Advisor to the Attorney General for U.S. Attorneys;” deputy press secretary Anna Kelly, who is actually qualified for the job and so, probably won’t get it; Taylor Budowich, who used to work for Ohio Republican Congressman Max Miller, currently in the news for alleged family violence; and Breitbart Washington bureau chief Matthew Boyle, who is probably also qualified, but physically unattractive, usually a no-go zone for Trump. Katie Miller, Kari Lake, and Steven Cheung have also been mentioned.
Of all of these, Anna Kelly would be the right pick; Kari Lake would be hilarious; and Alina Habba will probably get it.
It will also be interesting to see Leavitt’s next move, and how quickly she makes it. She clearly loves to work, and the jury is out about whether she loves being a full time mother. Leavitt is not even 30 yet, and she has played her cards well, up to and including marrying a rich older man who can support her ambitions as a working mother with plenty of staff. My guess is that after a decent interval, she will pivot to becoming either a highly paid right-wing pundit at Fox News or David Ellison’s new look CNN.
Claire Potter is a political historian who taught at the New School for Social Research. She is a contributing editor to Public Seminar and wrote the popular blog Tenured Radical from 2006 through 2015. Please consider subscribing to Political Junkie, her Substack newsletter.
Reprinted with permission from Political Junkie.
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