Even in a society that actively seeks to encourage young talent in any field, Karoline Leavitt’s rise to the role of White House Press Secretary at the age of 27 has been remarkable. Her assurance in the role is astounding at such a tender age, although it is sad that she didn’t choose a better boss. It is an ascension that the press has admired — whether political journalists or lifestyle writers.

That said, that’s largely where any mutual admiration ends as, backed by her employer, she cuts a strong, robust, even vicious figure at White House press conferences. Leavitt is no fan of the mainstream, established media - press or broadcast – except for those who favourably carry her and her President’s message.

Dynamic looks at the rapid ascent of a political prodigy.

 

Karoline Leavitt is an American political aide and government official serving as the 36th White House press secretary in the second Trump administration since January 2025. At 27, she is the youngest White House press secretary in history and the highest-ranking member of Generation Z to serve in the executive branch of the United States federal government.

During the first Trump administration (2017-2020), Leavitt was a presidential writer and assistant press secretary. By 2022, she was a spokesperson for MAGA Inc, and she served as the national press secretary for Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, a role which ultimately sealed her appointment as Press Secretary within the new administration.

Early life and education

Karoline Claire Leavitt was born and raised in New Hampshire. Her family owned an ice cream shop and a used truck dealership. She attended Central Catholic High School over the state line in nearby Lawrence, Massachusetts, graduating in 2015. She then attended Saint Anselm College, where she received a scholarship to play softball. She evidently graduated to hardball, at least in political terms, later.

During her college years, Leavitt became politically active with strong support for the first Trump presidency. Her op-eds in the college newspaper include a defence of Trump’s 2017 travel ban and a critique of the news media, something she would carry into her elevated profession. She founded Saint Anselm College’s first broadcasting club. While in college, Leavitt worked at Hearst Television WMUR-TV. She graduated in 2019 with a bachelor’s degree in communications and politics.

 

Career

During her education at Saint Anselm College, Leavitt interned at Fox News. The summer before her senior year of college, she interned as a writer in the White House Office of Presidential Correspondence. She returned briefly after her 2019 graduation before joining the White House Press Office as an assistant press secretary under Kayleigh McEnany. Following the conclusion of the first Trump administration, she was hired as the communications director for Republican U.S. representative Elise Stefanik from New York.

In 2022, Leavitt announced she was running for the US House of Representatives in New Hampshire’s 1st District.
The Republican primary attracted attention because both candidates were former Trump administration staffers. Leavitt differentiated herself with a brazen style that resembled Trump’s and gained right-wing supporters, including Lauren Boebert, Ted Cruz, and her mentor Elise Stefanik.

She criticised her primary opponent, Matt Mowers, with references to “the swamp” (something Trump had often cited he wanted to ‘drain’) and “establishment Republicans”. The New York Times described the candidates as ideologically similar and suggested the primary election was a matter of tone rather than policy.

In September of that year, she won the Republican primary in a surprise victory but lost the general election to Democratic incumbent Chris Pappas by eight percentage points. She declined to run again in 2024.

 

Trump press secretary

In January 2024, Leavitt accepted the role of national press secretary for Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. In one press appearance on CNN This Morning, she gave her first national warning of her disdain for adversarial debate when she was removed from being on air for criticising CNN’s debate moderators. Leavitt was also an instructor for Project 2025’s “Conservative Governance 101” training programme, a project Trump originally denied any involvement or interest in.

 

White House press secretary

Upon Donald Trump’s Presidential Election victory at the end of 2024, he chose Leavitt as his White House Press Secretary to succeed Karine Jean-Pierre. She assumed office on January 20th, 2025, making her the youngest White House Press Secretary ever appointed at just 27 years, four months and 27 days.

Leavitt delivered her first White House press conference on January 28th, 2025. During that masterclass in press control she announced that independent journalists and influencers could also apply for press credentials. This contravenes a long-standing protocol established between the White House and the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA), originally established in 1914.

While it’s noble and arguably progressive that the Press Secretary wishes to bring in new blood, perhaps offering a new perspective, the WHCA is concerned that any adversarial or uncomfortable questions the press association knows to ask may never be asked.

In addition, on February 25th, Leavitt announced that her team would determine who gets to enjoy privileged and limited access to spaces such as Air Force One and the Oval Office. Again, the announcement was criticised by the WHCA, who claimed that the move would undermine the independence of a free press in the United States.

Her style and tone of delivery at press conferences mix hard-nosed, no-nonsense realpolitik, disdain for the press professionals, and some dismissive, brick-wall gestures. In short, she is the perfect press liaison for Donald Trump.

Between them, they operate a pincer movement on the press and media. Remember Trump’s first press conference during his first term when he dismissed CNN as a ‘fake news’ outlet? That phrase has stuck, and now Trump has someone upfront to do that bidding for him, apeing her boss’s disdain by showing sometimes un-Presidential rudeness to those who disagree with them.

 

Additionally, like with the President, fact-checkers are often hired over time to confirm or deny statements made during press conferences, and they had to make several notable corrections after her first conference.

Her first few months have seen her work cut out. On March 26th, less than two months into her tenure, Leavitt issued a statement regarding the astonishingly unprofessional behaviour of Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth’s invitation to a journalist from The Atlantic news outlet to a private, classified WhatsApp group discussing foreign policy and military planning.

 

In what Ben Bradlee (Editor of The Washington Post as it uncovered the Watergate scandal 50 years ago) would have called a ‘non-denial denial’, Leavitt sought damage control, not by denying the story, but by accusing the Editor-in-Chief of The Atlantic of being ‘an anti-Trump hater’ (is that not a double-negative?) and a ‘registered Democrat’. Instead, she fought back by stating the public should trust Pete Hegseth and the Trump administration’s account over that of a ‘biased journalist’. Heinous accusations, all.

 

If nothing else, Leavitt’s comments sparked debate about journalistic integrity, government transparency, and the handling of classified information in the Trump administration.

Trouble

As a result of her 2022 House of Representatives campaign, Leavitt faced a Federal Election Commission (FEC) complaint alleging her campaign and treasurer illegally accepted campaign donations over the legal limit and never repaid her donors. In January 2025, Leavitt disclosed that $326,370 in 17 amended filings in unpaid campaign debts she had failed to disclose for several years. Roughly $200,000 of the debt was composed of illicit campaign donations made in excess of campaign finance limits she never paid back, in violation of campaign finance laws.

 

Given her position within the White House, the FEC is carefully considering its options; it takes her flouting of those finance laws seriously. Critics have pointed out that the unreturned money leaves her open to a conflict of interest, given who the donors are.

 

Personal life

Leavitt is married to Nicholas Riccio, a real estate developer 32 years older than her. They announced their engagement in December 2023 and were married in a private ceremony.

 

While Leavitt acknowledges that hers is a ‘very atypical love story’, it was still considered odd enough for certain aspects of the press and media – albeit not the political parts – to feel the need to question her life choices.

 

Karoline confirmed that she had dealt with those initial doubts about how the 32-year age gap would impact the relationship. “It’s a very atypical love story, but he’s incredible,” she gushed. “He is my greatest supporter, he’s my best friend, and he’s my rock. He’s built a very successful business himself, so now he’s fully supportive of me building success in my career.”

 

Even odder, though, is that not one single column inch has been dedicated to what her husband thinks about the age gap and the life choices he has also made. It seems to be the woman’s obligation to justify an ‘atypical’ relationship.

 

She gave birth to their son in July 2024. She had planned to go on maternity leave, but changed her mind after seeing the attempted assassination of Donald Trump in Pennsylvania the same month and resumed her professional duties four days after giving birth. That is a kind of dedication any boss would bend over backwards for.

 

LEGACY PLANNING

However, as impressive as her early CV is – and it is an astonishing achievement, given that she has risen to the status she has in such a short time and at such a young age – there is an almighty downside.

 

Being Press Secretary to someone with such little regard for his nation’s economy, the environment, the health and social welfare of his people, the US Constitution, history and international law is a role in which the incumbent has to leave every ounce of common decency at the door in order to function. Conversely, and far more sinisterly, it is a role that may well be carried out with full connivance and approval of the President’s behaviour.

 

Donald Trump himself, notwithstanding wanting a trade war with virtually everyone, the annexation of Canada, the imperial takeover of Greenland, and the desecration of the US economy as we know it, now believes he can run for a third term in office. This is banned under the 12th and 22nd Amendments of the US Constitution, and even though the protocols in place make it effectively prohibitive to allow a waiver of that amendment, that will not stop him from trying.

 

This may lead to a crossroads for Karoline Leavitt by the end of 2028. If she maintains her role for the entire presidential term (a slim chance, given Trump’s past behaviour), she will need to work out what to do next in her career, by which time she will still only be 31.

 

Given how divisive and toxic Trump’s first few weeks back in DC have been, it would take careful planning on Leavitt’s part to ensure none of that toxicity sticks to her. There is too much potential there to have it wasted on Trump’s largesse, and Trump’s alone.