White House press secretary Caroline Levit is leaving her role at the end of the month. She had recently returned from maternity leave following the birth of her second child. Caroline Bargoot tells us more from Washington.
Well, US President Donald Trump broke the news on social media. He said White House press secretary Caroline Levit was going to be resigning to spend more time with her young family. He called her one of his most trusted aids and said she was one of the best White House press secretaries in the history of that office.
But Trump also said that she would be working with him from the outside. He posted, "Caroline will now be one of my top adviserss and an influential voice within the Republican party as we work to defy history and conclusively win the midterm elections. " Now, Levit is 28 years old.
She is the youngest White House press secretary. She's been working with the president since 2018. She was along with him for his 2024 presidential run.
Obviously, she's been the main White House press secretary. Now, she had her second child in May and only took a few weeks off. She returned to her job last month.
Now, she posted on social media calling this the honor and adventure of a lifetime. She also said, "The truth is, since returning to the White House after the birth of my daughter, I have felt in my heart that I 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. " Now, Caroline Levit had a very interesting relationship with the press.
She would often go toe-to-toe with reporters if she didn't like the question they were asking or if she didn't like the way they had written a previous story or a story about the president. But reporters do say that she was always available to answer questions and would respond to their messages even on off hours. Now Levit says that she will be leaving her job at the end of this month.
>> Caroline Boot in Washington. Thank you. >> Thanks.
Okay, joining me now to talk more about the departure of Caroline Levit, I've got Chris Galeri. He's a politics professor at St. Anselm College.
Chris, good to have you on the show. >> Well, thanks for having me, Sarah. >> Caroline Levit is a I mean, she's a face that is familiar to people around the world because she is the second longest serving press secretary in the job.
Also, we heard from that report there, the youngest. Um, were you surprised to hear about this? >> I was not surprised.
Um, as you said, she's been in this job for quite a while as these things go, and this is a very brutal. Uh, it is a more than full-time job. Uh, the schedule is punishing.
So, it's not surprising to me that anyone would leave the job after about a year and a half holding it. Uh, particularly the case uh when, as we discussed earlier, she's someone with two young children at home. I mean, so those are the challenges.
What is the I mean, what's the path that lies ahead for her? I know we have seen a a lot of press secretaries go on to some pretty high-profile roles. >> That's right.
And I think there are a couple of paths here. Um, it seems like a book is inevitable in this sort of situation. Uh, a lot of press secretaries go into public relations or crisis media management sort of positions, uh, lobbying, taking advantage of, uh, their contact and their access and that sort of thing.
Um, in recent years, we've also seen a lot of folks moving from this position into roles with ideological or partisan media organizations. You know, we've seen Jen Saki go onto a show on MSNBC, uh, which is now called MS Now. Uh you've seen Kaylee Mhenny from the first Trump administration uh go on to a position uh on Fox News.
So I would not be surprised uh to see Caroline uh take one of those paths from here. >> There have also been those who have entered politics themselves. >> That's true.
Uh Sarah Huckabe Sanders uh went from being uh press secretary in Donald Trump's first administration to running for governor of Arkansas. Uh, in Caroline Levit's case, she's already run for Congress and lost back in 2022, so I don't know if that's uh necessarily as appealing to her. Um, but um my my guess is, you know, she's got a lot of time ahead of her.
Um, and if that is a route she wants to pursue, she'll need to move back to New Hampshire um and uh start laying the groundwork uh with the state party and with uh voters here. Certainly, I mean, without a doubt, what does lie ahead is going to be um the report card on all of this, the the reviews of how she has performed in this extremely high-profile role. As I say, I mean, we're talking about this in Canada because globally she's a face that uh everyone is familiar with.
What's your take on uh how she has performed? Well, I mean, we know that uh the president is very happy with her performance, and I think that comes down to the fact that there's essentially been no daylight between her and him throughout this administration. Uh, you know, her rhetoric has been every bit as bombastic, as over-the-top as his has been.
Um, and I think that has served her well in terms of the internal politics of the Trump White House. I I'm curious to see uh whether and to what extent this limits her after the White House. Um you know I think it's unlikely that she will be able to jump from here to you know a sort of uh you know soft focused non-political talk show like uh Kelly Clarkson has or something like The View.
Um I think she's really sort of uh locked in to uh the partisan rightwing media ecosphere here in the US. What do you make of uh the legacy I guess is the word I'm sort of toying with here, but filling her shoes? Who comes behind her?
And to what end do they feel they need to perform that job the same way? Yeah, I I don't have uh any particular names necessarily for possible successors, but I do think she's re created a template for Trump press secretaries moving forward in this term. Uh you know, what we've seen from Trump since he was reelected in 2024 is a much more aggressive, much more bombastic sort of uh administration.
Uh you know, I think there are fewer constraints on on Trump on on his actions. And so I think anybody who wants to uh succeed Caroline Levit in this position and succeed in this position uh is going to have to follow her lead in terms of echoing and amplifying the sorts of rhetoric that we hear from the president. >> Chris Galeri, politics professor at St.
Anelm College. Always good to speak with you, Chris. Thanks.
>> Well, thanks for having me.
