White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks during a press briefing in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on July 16, 2026. (Saul Loeb – AFP / Getty Images)
By Joe Saunders August 13, 2026 at 6:28am
The announcement that rocked Washington on Wednesday was actually months in the making.
When White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt published a post on social media to declare her resignation from the Trump administration, it was a culmination of conversations that had been going on at least since Leavitt gave birth to her second child in May, according to the U.K.’s Daily Mail.
Faced with a choice between the demanding jobs of motherhood or White House mouthpiece, Leavitt finally made her decision.
“It was a very stressful job to do with her children. She never got any sleep, and she didn’t want her performance to slip either, so she decided to stay as long as she could and do the job well,” one source told the Daily Mail, a British publication that puts major emphasis on covering the U.S.
“The president did everything he could to keep her.”
President Donald Trump’s announcement of Leavitt’s departure made it clear how strongly he feels about her.
“Karoline has been a real leader in the White House, and has done a phenomenal job fighting for Justice, Liberty, and Freedom, since 2018, including our Historic Re-Election Campaign of 2024. Karoline has been one of the best White House Press Secretaries in the History of the Office,” Trump wrote on the Truth Social platform. “Thank you, Karoline, for a job well done!”
Did you like the way Karoline Leavitt dealt with the media?
Politics being politics in the Age of Trump Hatred, leftists are already buzzing with the idea that there’s a “cover up” going on.
One account on the social medial platform X with more than 1 million followers noted with apparent sarcasm that Leavitt is leaving to “spend more time with family.” (That’s almost always a euphemism for politicians or business leaders looking for a way out of a hot seat.)
🚨 BREAKING: Trump announced Karoline Leavitt’s departure to “spend more time with family.”
In a LEAKED video from last night, she looks visibly isolated during a tense Marine One exchange with Trump and another woman.
Hours later, she’s out.
Is the WH covering up something? pic.twitter.com/jX4zrfIOnm
— CALL TO ACTIVISM (@CalltoActivism) August 12, 2026
Named White House press secretary when Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, Leavitt, who is 28, was the youngest person ever to fill the post.
At the time, she already had a son, Niko, who was born July 10, 2024, while Leavitt was serving as a spokeswoman for Trump’s presidential campaign. (She married Niko’s father, real estate developer Nicholas Riccio, the same month she took the press secretary job.)
She took only a four-day leave after the first birth, CNN noted on Wednesday. Her first day back to work after giving birth was the day after Trump came within a hair’s breadth of being assassinated in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13.
Juggling one child and a pregnancy with a White House career was one thing. Two children were apparently too much for Leavitt to give both jobs the attention they deserve — and she knew it.
According to the Daily Mail, one source said she had been considering resigning while still on maternity leave after the May birth of her daughter, Viviana.
Trump, however, was also signaling how much he wanted her back at the White House podium, dealing with the White House press corps in her trademark way.
“No doubt one of the hardest decisions of her life so far,” the source said.
After Leavitt’s return to work, the stress soon showed.
“‘First week back she realized she wasn’t feeling it anymore,” the Daily Mail quoted another source as saying. “Trump really didn’t want her to leave as he actually trusts her and doesn’t like having to deal with new people in his circle when he wants to focus on getting stuff done in his time left in office.”
The publication quoted yet another source saying Leavitt’s mind was made up.
“She was just trying to figure out how to politely step down with his [Trump’s] blessing,” the source said.
Judging by Trump’s Truth Social announcement, she has that in spades.
Trump called her decision one “I totally understand and respect!”
And he made it clear that he would still be relying on the young mother.
“Karoline will now be one of my top outside advisors, and an influential voice within the Republican Party, as we work to defy History, and conclusively win the Midterm Elections,” he wrote.
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Joe has spent more than 30 years as a reporter, copy editor and metro desk editor in newsrooms in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Florida. He’s been with Liftable Media since 2015.
Joe has spent more than 30 years as a reporter, copy editor and metro editor in newsrooms in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Florida. He’s been with Liftable Media since 2015. Largely a product of Catholic schools, who discovered Ayn Rand in college, Joe is a lifelong newspaperman who learned enough about the trade to be skeptical of every word ever written. He was also lucky enough to have a job that didn’t need a printing press to do it.
Birthplace
Philadelphia
Nationality
American
