Karoline Leavitt Exits White House Press Secretary Role, Will Stay as Outside Adviser
President Trump announced on August 12, 2026, that White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt is leaving the role and will continue serving as an outside adviser. NPR
Leavitt has held the press secretary post since the start of Trump's second term. Trump selected her for the position on November 15, 2024, during the presidential transition, after she served as national press secretary for his 2024 campaign. Reuters
She was 27 when Trump tapped her for the job, making her the youngest person to hold the title of White House press secretary. Reuters
Leavitt's ties to Trump's orbit predate the 2024 cycle. She worked as a White House communications aide during Trump's first term, and in October 2020 she tested positive for COVID-19 amid a broader outbreak among White House staff and Republican officials. Reuters She later took on the role of national press secretary for the Trump campaign by April 2024, positioning her as a principal media surrogate through the general election. Reuters
Trump's announcement that Leavitt will remain as an outside adviser leaves open the question of how the White House intends to structure its communications operation going forward. No successor has been named.
The transition from a salaried West Wing role to an outside advisory capacity is a structural shift worth noting. Outside advisers operate without the formal constraints of federal employment, including Senate-confirmed or ethics-bound status, and are not subject to the same disclosure requirements as full-time White House staff. For a press secretary, a role built on daily proximity to the president and the press briefing podium, moving to an outside capacity changes both the access calculus and the accountability framework. Leavitt's continued involvement suggests the White House wants to retain her as a communications strategist rather than as the day-to-day public face of the administration.
Leavitt's tenure as press secretary spanned roughly 19 months, covering the opening phase of Trump's second term. During that period she was the administration's primary on-camera spokesperson, conducting briefings and fielding press inquiries on the full range of policy and political matters facing the White House.
The broader context here is the historically high turnover rate for the press secretary position across administrations of both parties. The role is among the most visible and grueling in the West Wing, and the average tenure has trended downward over recent decades. Leavitt's roughly year-and-a-half stint falls within the typical range for modern press secretaries, though her age and the speed of her rise from campaign aide to the briefing podium drew attention at the time of her appointment.
For political professionals tracking White House personnel moves, the key detail is the dual-track arrangement: a departure from the formal role paired with continued engagement as an outside adviser. That structure allows the White House to retain Leavitt's institutional knowledge and media relationships without keeping her in the daily briefing rotation. It also leaves the press secretary vacancy as an immediate personnel decision the White House will need to address.
No timetable has been given for naming a replacement, and the White House has not specified what Leavitt's outside advisory portfolio will cover.
