The new face of the White House is 27 and wants influencers to ask the questions

Washington: The new public face of the Trump administration is a 27-year-old mother and Donald Trump loyalist who once wanted to be a journalist and beat nine Republican rivals when she ran for Congress two years ago.

Karoline Leavitt, the youngest press secretary in White House history, delivered her first briefing to reporters on Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT) and quickly established there was a new sheriff in town and things were going to change.

Karoline Leavitt, 27, fields questions from reporters during her first press briefing as White House press secretary.Credit: Bloomberg

No longer would tradition rule the roost, such as the first question going to the Associated Press news agency. Instead, “new media” players Axios and Breitbart were given the first bite – the latter being a hard-right organ that has promoted conspiracy theories and was once chaired by former Trump strategist Steve Bannon.

But Leavitt also urged a broader range of non-traditional media players to apply for a White House press pass. “Independent journalists, podcasters, social media influencers and content creators” were all encouraged to enter the fray. They would even have assigned seats at the front of the room, previously reserved for staff.

“It’s essential to our team that we share President Trump’s message everywhere and adapt this White House to the new media landscape in 2025,” Leavitt announced, noting millions of Americans, especially the young, now sourced their news content from podcasts, blogs, social media and other “independent” outlets.

Leavitt grew up in the solidly Democratic state of New Hampshire and attended Saint Anselm College on a softball scholarship. There, she worked on the student newspaper and penned opinion pieces decrying the “liberal media” and defending Trump’s first-term “travel ban” for seven Muslim countries.

There were many questions for White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt at her first briefing.Credit: Bloomberg

She later obtained a White House internship and successfully lobbied for a job in the press office. When Trump lost in 2020, she worked for a Republican congresswoman, and then ran for Congress herself, winning a 10-way Republican primary for a New Hampshire seat, but losing to the incumbent Democrat at the 2022 election.

While pregnant, Leavitt was the national spokeswoman for Trump’s 2024 campaign, and gave birth just three days before the attempt on Trump’s life at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. She watched the horror unfold on TV.

“I looked at my husband and said, ‘Looks like I’m going back to work’,” she later told The Conservateur. Leavitt was back giving interviews the next day, saying: “I felt compelled to be present in this historic moment.”

As expected, Trump tapped Leavitt for the high-profile press secretary job shortly after his November 5 election victory, praising her as smart, tough and a proven, highly effective communicator.

But in the first Trump administration, the job was a poisoned chalice. His first press secretary, Sean Spicer, quit after six months, outraged over Trump’s hiring of financier Anthony Scaramucci as communications director. (Scaramucci lasted 10 days.) Sarah Sanders served for two years, followed by Stephanie Grisham, who held no press briefings during her nine-month tenure, and finally Kayleigh McEnany, for Trump’s final nine months.

Sean Spicer lasted six months as Donald Trump’s first White House press secretary in 2017.Credit: AP

While the press secretary’s job is to spin on the president’s behalf, Leavitt is leaning into that part of the role mercilessly. Before the inauguration, she told New Hampshire TV station WMUR that all Americans realised it was time to support Trump. “The whole world is on President Trump’s side, it really feels that way,” she said.

On Tuesday, at her briefing room debut, Leavitt took questions for about 45 minutes in a fast-talking, assured, take-no-prisoners style, wearing a mulberry-coloured suit and a cross around her neck. She promised to tell the truth – which was easy, she said, because Trump’s policies were “wildly popular”. She railed against US taxpayers’ money being spent on “condoms in Gaza”, and insisted all immigrants in the United States illegally should be regarded as criminals, not just those convicted of violent crimes.

“I know the last administration didn’t see it that way, so it’s a big culture shift in our nation to view someone who breaks our immigration laws as a criminal, but that’s exactly what they are,” she said.

And after laying down the welcome mat for podcasters, influencers and the new media set, Leavitt put the so-called legacy media – newspapers, radio, television and newswires – on notice. While not indulging in Trump’s preferred term of “fake news”, she accused mainstream outlets of pushing “lies” about Trump and his family.

“We will not accept that,” Leavitt said. “We will call you out when we feel that your reporting is wrong or there is misinformation about this White House. I will hold myself to the truth, and I expect everyone in this room to do the same.”

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