White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt will step down from her position at the end of August, President Donald Trump announced Wednesday on his Truth Social platform. Trump said Leavitt, 28, is departing "so she can spend more time with her beautiful young children and family" and that she will become "one of my top outside advisors" and "an influential voice within the Republican Party."

Leavitt confirmed her departure in a statement posted to X, saying the role has been "the honor and adventure of a lifetime" but that since returning from maternity leave she has felt she "cannot be the best mom my two young children deserve while devoting the constant time, energy, and attention required of the White House Press Secretary." She gave birth to her second child, a daughter named Viviana, in May, becoming the first White House press secretary to have a child while serving in the role, and returned to the briefing room podium on July 16. Neither Trump nor Leavitt indicated who might succeed her in the position.

Leavitt became the youngest person ever to serve as White House press secretary when Trump returned to office in January 2025, surpassing Ronald Ziegler, who was 29 when he held the role under President Richard Nixon. She previously served as an assistant press secretary during Trump's first term and as his national press secretary during the 2024 presidential campaign, during which she gave birth to her first child and returned to work after just four days when an assassination attempt was made against Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. She also ran unsuccessfully as the Republican nominee for New Hampshire's first congressional district in 2022.

Leavitt's tenure of roughly 18 months ranks as the second-longest for a Trump White House press secretary, behind Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who served nearly two years during the first term. She is the fifth woman in a high-ranking position to leave the Trump administration this year, following Attorney General Pam Bondi, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, all of whom were replaced by men. During her absence on maternity leave earlier this year, the White House declined to name an interim press secretary, instead deploying senior officials including Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to brief reporters.