White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt made her debut in the briefing room on Tuesday, spending about 47 minutes answering questions from the White House press corps, promising to speak frequently with the news media and opening up the briefing room to social media influencers and podcasters.
“President Trump is back, and the golden age of America has most definitely begun,” she said as Tuesday’s briefing kicked off.
She took a combative tone with those covering the White House and President Donald Trump’s administration, echoing her boss’ longtime hostility toward many legacy media outlets and outlining what to expect with how the White House will handle media during Trump’s second term.
Leavitt committed to “telling the truth from this podium every single day,” and said the White House would “call out” media outlets for pushing any perceived misinformation.
“We know for a fact that there have been lies that have been pushed by many legacy media outlets about this president,” Leavitt said to the reporters in the room.
“While I vow to provide the truth from this podium, we ask that all of you in this room hold yourselves to that same standard.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks during a briefing at the White House, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025, in Washington.
Evan Vucci / The Associated Press
“Millions of Americans, especially young people, have turned from traditional television outlets and newspapers to consume their news from blogs, social media and other independent outlets,” she continued. “It is essential to our team that we share President Trump’s message everywhere and adapt this White House to the new media landscape.”
Leavitt also announced that the Trump administration has introduced a “new media” seat in the James S. Brady Briefing Room; a move she said would “welcome independent journalists, podcasters, social media influencers and content creators to apply for credentials to cover this White House.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks at the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025.
Ben Curtis / The Associated Press
“Whether you are a TikTok content creator, a blogger, a podcaster, if you are producing legitimate news content … you will be allowed to apply,” she said.
Read on to learn more about Leavitt’s rise in politics, other controversial topics she touched on in Tuesday’s briefing and how her debut became a history-making event.
The youngest person to hold the position
Leavitt’s appointment as press secretary at the age of 27 secures her as the youngest person to ever hold the job, beating out Ronald Ziegler, who was 29 when he served under President Richard Nixon.
Leavitt attended at Saint Anselm College, a liberal arts school in Manchester, N.H., on an athletic scholarship. She played on the softball team and graduated in 2019 with a bachelor’s degree in politics and communication, the first in her immediate family to earn a college degree.
In 2016 she interned at Fox News during the New Hampshire primary.
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“The NH Primary is how my love for politics and media originated,” Leavitt wrote on a post shared to her Instagram last year. “From that week on, I knew what I wanted to do for my career.”
During Trump’s first presidency, Leavitt worked as an assistant press secretary and presidential writer. When he lost re-election in 2020, she began working as communications director for New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik.
In 2022, Leavitt ran for Congress in New Hampshire’s 1st District. She won the Republican nomination but lost the general election to Democrat Chris Pappas.
Eventually, Leavitt made her way back to Trump’s team, serving as his national press secretary during his 2024 campaign and spokesperson for his transition team.
Juggling the job as a mom
Leavitt is the sixth working mother in a row to hold the job of press secretary, joining 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 “just days” after giving birth to her son, Nicholas, in July 2024.
Speaking to The Conservateur in October, she said she was just three days into her maternity leave, watching television and relaxing at home with her newborn, when she watched Trump get shot at a rally in Butler, Penn.
“I looked at my husband and said, ‘Looks like I’m going back to work,’” she told the outlet.
The next day, she was back on television.
“Leaving the baby every day to go to work, it does break your heart,” Leavitt confessed in the interview. “It’s incredibly challenging emotionally, physically, spiritually.
“It would have been a lot easier for me to respectfully decline this job offer and enjoy this past year in the peace and comfort of my previous job.”
When an Instagram follower asked her if she was worried about the demands of the job and missing out on moments with her son, she shared that she prays about it every day and that “it’s very difficult but it’s also all I know.”
What Trump has said about Leavitt
When Trump announced Leavitt’s appointment last November, he praised her strength and intelligence.
“Karoline Leavitt did a phenomenal job as the National Press Secretary on my Historic Campaign, and I am pleased to announce she will serve as White House Press Secretary,” his statement read.
“Karoline is smart, tough, and has proven to be a highly effective communicator. I have the utmost confidence she will excel at the podium, and help deliver our message to the American people as we Make America Great Again.”
Still, she confessed to The Conservateur that working for Trump has challenging aspects — in particular, she’s had to adjust to the “Donald Trump sleep schedule,” as she called it, and was waking up at 4 a.m. every day after only getting about four hours of sleep every night.
What else Leavitt said during Tuesday’s briefing
Aside from announcing that the White House would open up seats in the briefing room for alternative forms of media and influencers, Leavitt addressed an array of topics, including plans to cut down on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, and the administration’s freeze on federal grants and loans. She also spoke about an elimination of funding for “transgenderism and wokeness.”
She defended Trump’s executive order that eliminates the acknowledgement of trans Americans, describing it as a restoration of “sanity” in the face of “wokeness.”
She also reinforced Trump’s stance on immigration, telling the public, “If you are an individual, a foreign national who illegally enters the United States of America, you are by definition a criminal.”
During the briefing, she said the plans to slap Canada with punishing tariffs on Saturday is still in play, telling reporters that she spoke with the president Monday night and he indicated Feb. 1 was “still on the books” for the introduction of damaging duties against Canada and Mexico.
Trump initially promised 25 per cent across-the-board tariffs in response to what he called the failure of both countries to curb the illegal flow of people and drugs across the border.
She also pointed to last weekend’s standoff with Colombia, which initially refused U.S. repatriation flights of deported migrants but then backed down when Trump threatened tariffs, as an example of the use of tariffs as a negotiating tool.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt holds her first news conference in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on Jan. 28, 2025 in Washington, D.C. At 27 years old, Leavitt is the youngest White House press secretary in U.S. history.
Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
“I won’t get ahead of the president on advocating to foreign nations what they should or shouldn’t do to get away from these tariffs,” she said.
“The president has made it very clear that he expects every nation around this world to co-operate with the repatriation of their citizens.”
When asked about whether this administration would celebrate Black History Month, she responded with: “We will continue to celebrate American history and the contributions that all Americans, regardless of race, religion or creed, have made to our great country.”
— With files from Global News’ Sean Boynton and The Associated Press
