One day after Donald Trump announced Karoline Leavitt’s resignation, doubts have arisen about who will replace her as White House press secretary. While some U.S. officials have been surprised that the spokesperson is leaving the position without the name of her replacement yet known, others question the impact of this departure less than three months before the midterm elections.
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Trump announced on Wednesday that Leavitt will leave her position “at the end of the month” to devote time to her family. “Our wonderful White House press secretary, and one of my most trusted collaborators, Karoline Leavitt, will leave her position at the end of the month to spend more time with her beautiful young children and family,” the president said on his Truth Social network.
The White House occupant added that Leavitt will now become one of his “top external advisors and an influential voice within the Republican Party.”
Leavitt, who just had her second child, expressed on social media that the decision was “bittersweet,” and said she felt “incredibly grateful” to the president. In May, the spokesperson announced the birth of her daughter Viviana, just a few days after postponing her maternity leave following an alleged assassination attempt against Trump during the White House correspondents’ dinner in April.
In office since January 20, 2025, the 36th White House press secretary, aged 28, became the youngest person to be a spokesperson for a U.S. president, a position of high public exposure. She served longer under the Trump administration than any other spokesperson, except Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
Trump said he supports Leavitt’s decision, although some argue it comes at a crucial time for the president, with the midterm elections scheduled for November 3, 2026.
Historically, the president’s party tends to lose seats in midterm elections, and Trump’s low approval ratings could pose a challenge for Republicans in November.
Donald Trump’s net approval rating has fallen to -27, a new historic low, according to YouGov polling tracked by The Economist.
Her departure has also raised questions about who will replace her as White House press secretary and take on the crucial task of communicating the administration’s message in the lead-up to the midterm elections.
On this, a White House official told The Independent that the White House does not intend to appoint a replacement for Leavitt when she leaves her post as press secretary at the end of this month, thus leaving the most visible podium in U.S. politics without a permanent occupant less than three months before the elections.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to comment on internal personnel deliberations, said the White House will continue to offer journalists briefings from senior administration officials, such as Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who took turns in the press room during Leavitt’s maternity leave.
According to The Independent, the lack of an immediate replacement for Leavitt is partly due to the sudden decision to resign, but also because of her closeness to the president, as she has devoted almost her entire adult life to working for him, starting as an intern at the White House during his first term.
Leaving the position vacant, even temporarily, would be an unusual decision, the British newspaper notes. All modern-era administrations have rushed to appoint at least an interim press secretary, partly because the role carries responsibilities beyond the televised press conference: coordinating with agency communications departments, accompanying the president on foreign trips, and serving as a formal point of contact for the White House Correspondents’ Association.
As for who might someday assume the role, Anna Kelly, the principal deputy press secretary, is the highest-ranking official in the press department after Leavitt and has increasingly represented the administration on television and radio, particularly on foreign policy.
But notably, the president overlooked Kelly, a veteran Republican communications strategist, when Leavitt was temporarily absent earlier this year, the outlet pointed out.
Other possible successors whose names have been mentioned in prediction markets and social media include failed Los Angeles mayoral candidate and former controversial TV figure Spencer Pratt; Trump’s former lawyer Alina Habba; CNN conservative commentator Scott Jennings; former news anchor and failed political candidate in Arizona Kari Lake; and podcaster Katie Miller, who was press secretary to then-Vice President Mike Pence for a time during Trump’s first term.
A New York Post report also suggested that the press secretary position could be filled by Stephen Cheung, White House communications director; Matthew Boyle, veteran Breitbart News chief correspondent; or Taylor Budowich, former White House deputy chief of staff.
Of those three, a source told The Independent that Budowich, who left the administration to take a private sector job last year, would be seen as someone with enough ease to perform on camera and who has the trust of both the president and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles. However, the source warned that it is unlikely the president would choose a man as his main spokesperson.
Amid these speculations, Trump’s former spokesperson, Mike Dubke, said on Wednesday he was “very surprised” that Karoline Leavitt is leaving her post without a replacement being named. “I’m very surprised, because usually, when there is a transition from one press secretary to another, there is someone waiting in the wings, or maybe a deputy who can step in, or … and we saw during the time she was on maternity leave that there was a rotating cast of people coming to do the press conferences,” Dubke said on CNN’s “The Arena,” comments highlighted by Mediaite.
“Will Trump’s next press secretary lie better than the previous five?” wondered The Guardian columnist Robert Mackey, referring to Sean Spicer, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Stephanie Grisham, Kayleigh McEnany, and Karoline Leavitt herself. “A brief review of her tenure, and that of her predecessors, makes clear that the most fabulist president in U.S. history values one quality above all others in the men and women who speak on his behalf: the willingness to tell outrageous lies,” he stated.
To illustrate, Mackey wrote: “Leavitt began her tenure with a blatant lie at her first press conference, claiming that the Joe Biden administration had planned to use $50 million of taxpayer money to send condoms to Gaza. That same day, The Guardian reported that USAID (United States Agency for International Development) records directly contradicted that claim.”
Stephen Collinson, CNN analyst, explained why it might be impossible for Trump to replace his last spokesperson. “The departure of a press secretary might seem trivial to the president. However, Karoline Leavitt’s resignation, announced Wednesday, represents a significant personal and political loss. The void she leaves will highlight her key role as a crucial member of the president’s advisory team,” he wrote.
In his view, Leavitt “is much more than a spokesperson. She understands Trump’s mindset. She has been a key figure in his second term attack on Washington’s accountability institutions, in this case, the capital’s press. Like her boss, she broke the mold of her position. And with her relentless harassment of journalists, she has exposed the fissures of traditional journalism in the social media era.”
“So maybe he doesn’t even need another press secretary,” Collinson suggests. “He will find it difficult to replace Leavitt’s combination of skills. She speaks the MAGA discourse on camera more fluently than anyone except the president. Her press conferences are not so much attempts to explain policies or convey coded messages to foreign leaders, but rather demonstrations of Trump’s own rebelliousness,” he asserts. “The president’s followers adore Leavitt,” he adds.
And he concludes: “Unless the president chooses a replacement who is already part of his inner circle, Leavitt’s successor might lack the authenticity that made her an authoritative voice within the administration. Most White Houses prepare one or more deputy press secretaries for the top job, which usually wears out the holders in a few years. The lack of a visible succession plan for Leavitt will fuel speculation that Trump might take on the entire task himself.”
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