President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt will be leaving her post at the end of this month to prioritize her family.
“Caroline is a true leader in the White House and has done a phenomenal job fighting for justice, liberty, and freedom since 2018,” President Trump said in a post Wednesday, announcing the personnel shakeup.
Recommended stories
list of 3 itemsend of list
He said Levitt will continue to be one of his “top outside advisers” and an “influential voice within the Republican Party.”
Mr. Levitt is the latest in a series of senior Trump officials to depart from the second administration.
Since the beginning of this year, top officials have been fired, including former Attorney General Pam Bondi and former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Other officials, including former Labor Secretary Lori Michelle Chavez Delemer and Acting Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Todd Ryan, also resigned amid scrutiny over their leadership.
However, Leavitt’s retirement comes immediately after her maternity leave. She and her spouse, Nicholas Riccio, welcomed their second child, a baby girl, Viviana, in early May.
The 27-year-old resigned from her position as White House press secretary in late April. She returned to the White House podium in mid-July for her first formal press conference.
“Caroline is one of the finest press secretaries in the history of White House press secretaries,” President Trump said in the post.
He added that Levitt will continue to serve in the administration as Republicans aim for “solid victory” in November’s midterm elections.
Mr. Levitt has been a prominent figure in Mr. Trump’s inner circle since his first term in office. She began working as an intern in the White House Office of Presidential Communications and her career progressed quickly from there.
By the end of President Trump’s first term in January 2021, Levitt had served as assistant press secretary and became White House press secretary.
The relationship with Trump continued even after Trump was removed from office following the 2020 presidential election. She worked in communications for MAGA Inc., a super PAC named after President Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement, and ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in New Hampshire in 2021.
She won the Republican primary for New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District, but ultimately lost to incumbent Democrat Chris Pappas in the 2022 midterm elections.
When Trump ran for a second term as president in 2024, Levitt served as his chief press secretary and supported his campaign. After the president’s inauguration in 2025, she became White House press secretary at the age of 27, making her the youngest person in history to do so.
Her style at the White House podium has been described as “belligerent,” and she developed a reputation for clashing with reporters at frequent news conferences.
“I find it insulting that you’re trying to test my knowledge of economics and the decisions that this president has made,” she told one Associated Press reporter early in her tenure.
Under her leadership, the White House briefing room has also expanded to include bloggers and social media influencers.
Mr. Levitt was known to begin his press conferences by giving the “new media chair” the opportunity to ask the first question of the day, but critics said that honor was often given to right-wing content creators.
She linked the expanded media approach to Trump’s own campaign strategy, which includes appearances on podcasts such as Joe Rogan.
“Continuing with this revolutionary media approach that President Trump deployed during his campaign, President Trump’s White House intends to speak to all media outlets and public figures, not just the traditional media sitting in this room,” she said at her inaugural press conference.
Mr. Levitt has frequently echoed mainstream media criticism of President Trump for favoring right-wing voices.
But press freedom advocates have accused the Trump administration of imposing new restrictions on journalists’ access to the executive branch.
Last October, for example, the White House announced new rules restricting journalists’ access to Mr. Levitt’s office for reporting purposes.
The White House also sought to ban Associated Press members from attending certain presidential events amid controversy over the magazine’s use of the term “Gulf of Mexico” instead of President Trump’s preferred name “Gulf of the United States.”
Critics denounced the move as an effort to limit government transparency and curtail the right to freedom of the press guaranteed by the First Amendment.
Levitt is the only person to serve as press secretary during President Trump’s second term.
But in his first term, four people held the role, including Sean Spicer and current Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
