White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt made her debut within the briefing room on Tuesday, spending about 47 minutes answering questions from the White House press corps, promising to talk ceaselessly with the information media and opening up the briefing room to social media influencers and podcasters.
“President Trump is again, and the golden age of America has most undoubtedly begun,” she mentioned as Tuesday’s briefing kicked off.
She took a combative tone with these protecting the White Home and President Donald Trump’s administration, echoing her boss’ longtime hostility towards many legacy media shops and outlining what to anticipate with how the White Home will deal with media throughout Trump’s second time period.
Leavitt dedicated to “telling the reality from this podium each single day,” and mentioned the White Home would “name out” media shops for pushing any perceived misinformation.
“We all know for a indisputable fact that there have been lies which have been pushed by many legacy media shops about this president,” Leavitt mentioned to the reporters within the room.
“Whereas I vow to supply the reality from this podium, we ask that every one of you on this room maintain yourselves to that very same customary.”
White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks throughout a briefing on the White Home, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025, in Washington.
Evan Vucci / The Related Press
“Thousands and thousands of Individuals, particularly younger individuals, have turned from conventional tv shops and newspapers to devour their information from blogs, social media and different impartial shops,” she continued. “It’s important to our staff that we share President Trump’s message in every single place and adapt this White Home to the brand new media panorama.”
Leavitt additionally introduced that the Trump administration has launched a “new media” seat within the James S. Brady Briefing Room; a transfer she mentioned would “welcome impartial journalists, podcasters, social media influencers and content material creators to use for credentials to cowl this White Home.”
White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks on the day by day briefing on the White Home in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025.
Ben Curtis / The Related Press
“Whether or not you’re a TikTok content material creator, a blogger, a podcaster, if you’re producing reliable information content material … you can be allowed to use,” she mentioned.
Learn on to study extra about Leavitt’s rise in politics, different controversial subjects she touched on in Tuesday’s briefing and the way her debut grew to become a history-making occasion.
The youngest particular person to carry the place
Leavitt’s appointment as press secretary on the age of 27 secures her because the youngest particular person to ever maintain the job, beating out Ronald Ziegler, who was 29 when he served below President Richard Nixon.
Leavitt attended at Saint Anselm School, a liberal arts faculty in Manchester, N.H., on an athletic scholarship. She performed on the softball staff and graduated in 2019 with a bachelor’s diploma in politics and communication, the primary in her quick household to earn a school diploma.
In 2016 she interned at Fox Information through the New Hampshire main.
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“The NH Main is how my love for politics and media originated,” Leavitt wrote on a put up shared to her Instagram final yr. “From that week on, I knew what I wished to do for my profession.”
Throughout Trump’s first presidency, Leavitt labored as an assistant press secretary and presidential author. When he misplaced re-election in 2020, she started working as communications director for New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik.
In 2022, Leavitt ran for Congress in New Hampshire’s 1st District. She received the Republican nomination however misplaced the overall election to Democrat Chris Pappas.
Finally, Leavitt made her approach again to Trump’s staff, serving as his nationwide press secretary throughout his 2024 marketing campaign and spokesperson for his transition staff.
Juggling the job as a mother
Leavitt is the sixth working mom in a row to carry the job of press secretary, becoming a member of President Joe Biden’s Karine Jean-Pierre and Jen Psaki and Trump’s first-term press secretaries, Kayleigh McEnany, Stephanie Grisham and Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
She returned to work “simply days” after giving start to her son, Nicholas, in July 2024.
Chatting with The Conservateur in October, she mentioned she was simply three days into her maternity leave, watching tv and stress-free at house along with her new child, when she watched Trump get shot at a rally in Butler, Penn.
“I checked out my husband and mentioned, ‘Appears like I’m going again to work,’” she advised the outlet.
The following day, she was again on tv.
“Leaving the child every single day to go to work, it does break your coronary heart,” Leavitt confessed within the interview. “It’s extremely difficult emotionally, bodily, spiritually.
“It could have been so much simpler for me to respectfully decline this job provide and luxuriate in this previous yr within the peace and luxury of my earlier job.”
When an Instagram follower requested her if she was frightened concerning the calls for of the job and lacking out on moments along with her son, she shared that she prays about it every single day and that “it’s very troublesome but it surely’s additionally all I do know.”
What Trump has mentioned about Leavitt
When Trump introduced Leavitt’s appointment final November, he praised her energy and intelligence.
“Karoline Leavitt did an exceptional job because the Nationwide Press Secretary on my Historic Marketing campaign, and I’m happy to announce she is going to function White Home Press Secretary,” his assertion learn.
“Karoline is sensible, robust, and has confirmed to be a extremely efficient communicator. I’ve the utmost confidence she is going to excel on the podium, and assist ship our message to the American individuals as we Make America Nice Once more.”
Nonetheless, she confessed to The Conservateur that working for Trump has difficult facets — particularly, she’s needed to modify to the “Donald Trump sleep schedule,” as she known as it, and was waking up at 4 a.m. every single day after solely getting about 4 hours of sleep each evening.
What else Leavitt mentioned throughout Tuesday’s briefing
Apart from saying that the White Home would open up seats within the briefing room for various types of media and influencers, Leavitt addressed an array of subjects, together with plans to chop down on variety, fairness and inclusion initiatives, and the administration’s freeze on federal grants and loans. She additionally spoke about an elimination of funding for “transgenderism and wokeness.”
She defended Trump’s govt order that eliminates the acknowledgement of trans Individuals, describing it as a restoration of “sanity” within the face of “wokeness.”
She additionally strengthened Trump’s stance on immigration, telling the general public, “In case you are a person, a overseas nationwide who illegally enters the USA of America, you’re by definition a prison.”
Throughout the briefing, she mentioned the plans to slap Canada with punishing tariffs on Saturday remains to be in play, telling reporters that she spoke with the president Monday evening and he indicated Feb. 1 was “nonetheless on the books” for the introduction of damaging duties towards Canada and Mexico.
Trump initially promised 25 per cent across-the-board tariffs in response to what he known as the failure of each international locations to curb the unlawful movement of individuals and medicines throughout the border.
She additionally pointed to final weekend’s standoff with Colombia, which initially refused U.S. repatriation flights of deported migrants however then backed down when Trump threatened tariffs, for example of the usage of tariffs as a negotiating instrument.
White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt holds her first information convention within the Brady Press Briefing Room on the White Home on Jan. 28, 2025 in Washington, D.C. At 27 years previous, Leavitt is the youngest White Home press secretary in U.S. historical past.
Chip Somodevilla / Getty Photos
“I received’t get forward of the president on advocating to overseas nations what they need to or shouldn’t do to get away from these tariffs,” she mentioned.
“The president has made it very clear that he expects every nation around this world to co-operate with the repatriation of their residents.”
When requested about whether or not this administration would have fun Black Historical past Month, she responded with: “We are going to proceed to have fun American historical past and the contributions that every one Individuals, no matter race, faith or creed, have made to our nice nation.”
— With recordsdata from World Information’ Sean Boynton and The Related Press
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