RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 17 sourcesWhite House press briefings will be given by top officials — as they had been intermittently during Leavitt’s maternity leave — but names are being bandied about for a down-the-line permanent replacement
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The White House does not intend to name a replacement for Karoline Leavitt when she steps down as press secretary at the end of this month, a White House official told The Independent , leaving the most visible lectern in American politics without a permanent occupant less than three months before the midterm elections.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal personnel deliberations, said the White House will instead continue offering reporters briefings from senior administration officials such as Vice President JD Vance , Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent , all three of whom took turns in the briefing room during Leavitt’s maternity leave.
President Donald Trump announced Leavitt's departure Wednesday , saying she would leave at the end of August "so she can spend more time with her beautiful young children and family, a decision I totally understand and respect!" He said she would stay on as "one of my top outside advisors" and work with the Republican Party ahead of November.
Leavitt confirmed the move in a lengthy post on X , calling it a "bittersweet decision" and writing that she had concluded she could not balance the demands of the job with being the mother she wanted to be to her two young children.
The Independent understands that lack of an immediate replacement for Leavitt is partly due to the suddenness of her decision to stand down from her post but also a reflection of her closeness to the president, as she has spent nearly her entire adult life working for him, starting as a White House intern during his first term.
At 28, Leavitt is the youngest person ever to hold the job. She was named to the post in November 2024, before Trump's second inauguration, and had returned from parental leave less than a month before the announcement, following the birth of her daughter on May 1.
She will depart having spent more time as the top White House spokesperson under Trump than any other save for now-Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who held the position for just short of two years from 2017 to 2019.
Leavitt’s tenure was among the most combative in the modern history of the briefing room. She presided over the administration's decision to bar The Associated Press from the Oval Office and Air Force One over the wire service's refusal to adopt Trump's renaming of the Gulf of Mexico, a move the AP challenged in federal court.
She also fronted the White House response to a string of controversies that reporters in the room pressed her on directly, from the administration's tattoo-based deportation determinations under the Alien Enemies Act to the president's rhetoric during the war with Iran.
Leaving the role vacant, even temporarily, would be an unusual choice. Every administration in the modern era has moved quickly to install at least an acting press secretary, in part because the position carries responsibilities beyond the televised briefing — coordinating with agency communications shops, staffing the president on foreign trips, and serving as the formal point of contact for the White House Correspondents’ Association.
As for who might some day take on the role, Anna Kelly, the principal deputy press secretary, is the most senior official in the press shop below Leavitt and has increasingly represented the administration on television and radio, particularly on foreign policy.
But the president notably bypassed Kelly, a veteran Republican communications operative, when Leavitt stepped away for a time earlier this year.
Other potential successors whose names have been mentioned on prediction markets and social media include failed Los Angeles mayoral candidate and ex-reality television villain Spencer Pratt, ex-Trump attorney Alina Habba, CNN conservative pundit Scott Jennings , former news anchor and failed Arizona political candidate Kari Lake, and podcaster Katie Miller, the latter of whom served as then-vice president Mike Pence’s press secretary for a time during Trump’s first term.
Another former Trump administration fixture who could potentially return to the president’s immediate orbit is Jalen Drummond, who served in multiple roles in the White House communications operation during Trump’s first term, rising to the rank of deputy press secretary before the president left office for the first time in 2021.
Drummond, a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps who is currently employed as vice president of corporate affairs and international communications at Lockheed Martin, has kept a low profile since the end of the first Trump administration but is known to be well-regarded by administration officials and is a close friend and confidante of Leavitt.
A report from the New York Post also suggested the press secretary role could be filled by White House Communications Director Stephen Cheung, Breitbart News longtime bureau chief Matthew Boyle, or former White House deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich.
Of those three, a source told The Independent that Budowich, who left the administration for a private sector role last year, would be seen as someone who is polished enough to appear on camera and has the trust of both the president and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, but the source cautioned that the president has generally preferred to have a woman as his top spokesperson since Spicer’s shambolic tenure as press secretary ended after the first six months of his first term.
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