Karoline Leavitt Says Trump Is the Best Boss, Reveals Fox News Start Date

Details & Background

Leavitt served as press secretary from January 2025 to August 2026. She was 27 when she took the job, the youngest person ever to hold it. Before that, she was Trump’s spokesperson for his 2024 campaign and transition. She also worked as a presidential writer and assistant press secretary in his first administration, served as communications director for Rep. Elise Stefanik, and ran for Congress in New Hampshire’s 1st District in 2022. Trump announced her departure on August 12. That was less than a month after she returned from maternity leave following the birth of her second child, a daughter, in May.

In her farewell post on X, Leavitt called the job “the honor and adventure of a lifetime” and said balancing it with motherhood had been “rewarding yet challenging.” “I have felt in my heart that I cannot be the best mom my two young children deserve,” she wrote. In Wednesday’s Q&A, she drew a sharp line between that job and her new routine. “As Press Sec, I was working in the office 60+ hours a week, traveling the world, and always on call 24/7,” she wrote. “Now, I am home with my kids every day and doing some TV hits. These things are not the same, ma’am.”

Reactions

Trump praised Leavitt when he announced her exit in August. He wrote that she was leaving “so she can spend more time with her beautiful young children and family.” He called her “one of the best White House Press Secretaries in the History of the Office” and thanked her for a “job well done.” He also said she would remain one of his “top outside advisors” and an “influential voice” in the Republican Party heading into the midterms.

When Fox News announced her hiring on October 5, Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott pointed to Leavitt’s firsthand experience in the White House and on the presidential campaign trail. Leavitt said she looked forward to “bringing my unique perspective from my experience as White House Press Secretary” to “Fox’s millions of viewers across their many platforms.” In Wednesday’s Q&A, she also gave advice to young people who want to follow her path. “My advice to people who want to get into politics or comms is to get real world experience when you’re in college,” she said. “You’ll be taught a lot of things in the classroom, but work experience is where you’re really going to learn the game.”

Why This Matters to You

The White House press secretary is the most visible link between the president and the American people. For more than a year and a half, Leavitt stood at that podium and defended the administration’s record on the border, the economy and national security. Her description of Trump as kind, funny and supportive comes from someone who worked beside him nearly every day. That picture of the president rarely appears in mainstream coverage.

Her move to Fox News matters as the midterm elections approach and early voting gets underway. Leavitt returns to the national conversation as an outside voice who knows how this White House operates from the inside. Her honesty about stepping back for her children also speaks to a struggle millions of working parents know well. “I don’t have free time. As a mom of two littles, I’m lucky if I can take a shower in peace,” she said. Starting November 1, one of the most recognizable defenders of the Trump agenda will again have a national platform at a moment when the stakes for the country could not be higher.