By Steve Holland
WEST PALM BEACH, Florida (Reuters) – President-elect Donald Trump reached out to his inner circle on Friday and chose his transition spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, as his White House press secretary, putting a 27-year-old firebrand in position to aggressively defend him.
Leavitt has endeared herself to Trump through her fervent defense of him in news interviews and her take-no-prisoners style, Trump advisers said.
The job of the White House press secretary is generally to help inform the American people about presidential activities without betraying the boss’s trust.
“I have every confidence that she will excel on stage and help deliver our message to the American people, as we do: Make America Great Again,” Trump said in a statement.
The challenge for Leavitt will be to provide reliable information and gain credibility with reporters — while maintaining strong loyalty to Trump.
Leavitt will be the youngest person to ever hold the title of White House press secretary. Ron Ziegler, at age 29, was the youngest press secretary when President Richard Nixon gave him the job in 1969.
A native of New Hampshire, Leavitt served as assistant press secretary during the latter part of Trump’s first term from 2017 to 2021.
When Trump was defeated by Democrat Joe Biden in 2020, Leavitt became communications director for Republican U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, whom Trump has appointed as his U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
Leavitt ran for a seat in the US House of Representatives from New Hampshire in 2022, winning the Republican primary. She lost the general election to Democrat Chris Pappas, but the experience seemed to give her valuable public speaking experience.
She joined Trump’s 2024 campaign and served as the chief spokesperson for the newly elected president’s transition team.
Biden has had two press secretaries for four years: Jen Psaki and Karine Jean-Pierre.
Trump, who keeps a close eye on who defends him and whether they are strong enough, had four press secretaries during his 2017-2021 term: Sean Spicer, Sarah Sanders, Stephanie Grisham and Kayleigh McEnany. Spicer clashed with the White House press corps his first appearance in January 2017 with the false claim that the crowd that gathered in Washington for Trump’s inauguration was “the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period.” , both in person and around the world.”
Photographic evidence showed otherwise and the commotion continued for days. Spicer ultimately lost Trump’s trust and the president switched to Sanders, who received praise from him for her pairing with the press corps. She is now the Republican governor of Arkansas.
After Sanders left, Trump turned to Grisham, who never held a briefing, which she said was at Trump’s direction. She eventually went back to work for Trump’s wife, then-first lady Melania Trump. Grisham resigned after the events of January 6, 2021 and is now a sharp Trump critic.
Trump’s last chief spokesperson in the White House was McEnany, who sparred with reporters during the pandemic year of 2020 and is now an on-air personality at Fox News.
(Reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Ross Colvin and Jonathan Oatis)
