Karoline Breaks Cover After Resignation With Telling Look

Karoline Leavitt cut a somber figure as she traveled alongside Donald Trump on Friday, only hours after revealing she plans to step down from the White House at the end of the month in a surprise decision that sent ripples through Washington.

The White House press secretary accompanied the President as he departed for New York, where he was scheduled to deliver remarks at a police academy.

At Joint Base Andrews, Leavitt stood nearby while Trump spoke to reporters before the two prepared to board Air Force One.

She kept her expression tightly controlled as members of the press crowded around the President, but as she climbed the aircraft steps, she looked back toward the photographers below, her face appearing to show a flash of sadness.

Just a day earlier, Leavitt, 28, announced she would be leaving her White House role to focus on her young family, a move that sources say disappointed Trump, who had urged her to remain in the job.

Leavitt has been regarded as one of the President’s most trusted aides and was widely expected to have a prominent role in the upcoming midterm campaign, with Election Day now less than three months away.

Her exit comes shortly after she returned from maternity leave following the birth of her daughter in May, her second child in two years.

Sources told Our News Outlet that Leavitt came back to the White House earlier than planned at Trump’s urging. No successor has yet been named, though Trump’s former attorney Alina Habba is currently seen by bookmakers as the leading contender to replace her.

Leavitt admitted it was a ‘bittersweet decision’ calling it ‘the most rewarding yet challenging season of my life, to say the least.’ 

‘The truth is since returning to the White House after the birth of my daughter, I have felt in my heart that I cannot be the best mom my two young children deserve while devoting the constant time, energy, and attention required of the White House Press Secretary – and that is why I have ultimately made the bittersweet decision to depart the White House and embark on a new chapter in my life,’ she wrote on X.

Trump posted on Truth Social it was ‘a decision I totally understand and respect’, calling Leavitt ‘one of the best White House press secretaries in the history of the office.’

The President said Leavitt would remain a ‘top outside adviser’ and an ‘influential voice’ at the top of the Republican Party as the White House gears up for crunch midterm elections in November.

Leavitt is known for her tenacity at the podium in the White House briefing room, frequently mirroring the behavior of her boss in attacking ‘fake news’ journalists and dishing out tongue lashings to any reporter who dares to cross the administration.

She entered Trump’s orbit in 2018 during the first administration, first as a presidential writer and then as an assistant White House press secretary.

Leavitt worked as communications director for New York representative Elise Stefanik, a close Trump ally, from 2021 to 2022.

She joined Trump’s re-election campaign as a national press secretary in 2024 and was announced as White House Press Secretary on his return to the Oval Office.

If Leavitt does return to work, she is likely to have her pick of high-profile roles in Republican politics, conservative media and political communications.

Leavitt has two-year-old son Niko and three-month-old daughter Vivi with her real estate developer husband Nicholas Riccio, 60, who she married in January last year.

Leavitt’s resignation comes just two weeks after one of her top deputies Abigail Jackson left the White House for the private sector.