Interview: Incoming White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt: “The next four years are going to be the most transformative time in our nation's history”
"We have the Senate, we have the House, and President Trump is going to take real bold action to make a monumental change for our country and for generations to come," Leavitt told us.
The youngest person ever to be named White House Press Secretary, 27-year-old Karoline Leavitt is no stranger to making history. During the 2022 cycle, she was one of the Republican Party’s youngest nominees for Congress.
In an interview with the Washington Reporter, Donald Trump’s incoming press secretary said that the president’s historic 2024 campaign was only the beginning of what she predicts will be four years of victories.
“The next four years are going to be the most transformative time in our nation's history,” she said. “We have the Senate, we have the House, and President Trump is going to take real bold action to make a monumental change for our country and for generations to come.”
During Trump’s first term, Leavitt worked with then-Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, “help[ing] her prepare for many of her briefings,” she said. Since Trump announced Leavitt as his press secretary, she’s been watching tape like an NFL player.
“I've gone back and watched a lot of C-Span briefings dating back to Dana Perino’s time in the Bush White House,” Leavitt said. “Dana and Ari Fleischer, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, were great. And of course, Kayleigh McEnany [was great].”
“What I've learned in talking to them and watching their past briefings is that you have to be yourself, you have to be honest, and know that your job is to relay the president's message,” she added. “It's not about me, it's about President Trump and speaking on his behalf and relaying what he wants to say and what the White House is doing directly to the American people.”
Fellow trailblazing Republican women, many of whom have been Leavitt’s bosses over the years, have also helped Leavitt prepare for the role. Leavitt’s first job in the Trump White House was under Desiree Sayle, a veteran of Republican White Houses. Her next bosses included Rep. Elise Stefanik (R., N.Y.) and McEnany. From those jobs she learned to “put yourself out there … work as hard as you possibly can at everything you do … respect everyone you work with … [and prepare for] a lot of personal sacrifice.”
When she enters the briefing room in January, Leavitt may be addressing a far different crowd than Perino, Fleischer, and even Sarah Huckabee Sanders and McEnany were familiar with. After Trump’s historic comeback victory, some in the liberal press corps lamented how “exhausted” they were at the prospect of a second Trump White House — so, word on the street is that Trump may clean house in the briefing room.
“It ends up kind of becoming all-consuming and taking over your life. It wears you down,” the New York Times’s Peter Baker complained to Vanity Fair. Mass layoffs at outlets such as CNN may thin the crowd in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room as well.
Leavitt and Trump have found new media allies, including podcasting megastars like Joe Rogan and Theo Von, who she credited with “play[ing] a vital role in relaying President Trump's message to new audiences of especially younger voters who are no longer tuning into the cable news at night.” Trump earned historic support from young voters, especially young men. “A big chunk of the future electorate is MAGA red,” Axios noted.
“They're listening to their podcast in their car when they're driving to work, or in their headphones when they're at the gym,” Leavitt said. “That's the reality of the digital age that we live in today. These podcasters and social influencers are incredibly impactful because they are not beholden to corporate interests. They're not told by their editors what to write or what to say. They are independent critical thinkers, many of whom came to their own decision to support President Trump for various reasons, and kudos to President Trump for having the courage to walk into these non-traditional media environments and sit down for a three hour conversation with Joe Rogan, for example, covering every topic under the sun.”
“I think it's his authenticity that people crave, especially in a city like Washington, where everything is fake and every politician is beholden to a teleprompter,” Leavitt added. “That is not President Trump, and I think it's a huge reason why he won the election.”
The advice Leavitt said she would have given to herself during the first Trump White House is likely still apropos: “Buckle up,” she said. “It's gonna be a long ride.”
Below is a transcript of our interview with incoming White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, lightly edited for clarity.
Washington Reporter:
You're 27 and you have made no shortage of history: as a Republican congressional candidate in 2022, and you're making history again as the youngest incoming White House Press Secretary ever. Tell us what that's been like for you and what that's been like for your family.
Karoline Leavitt:
I wouldn't be here without the support of my family. I have great parents who raised me well with conservative values. I'm very grateful to my new husband and to my new child. Having a baby is the greatest blessing life can offer, and it really puts everything in perspective. Your baby doesn't care who you are, what job you have, how much money you make. So going home after a long day working in politics to a beautiful, happy child who just wants to be with you is a blessing that’s really helped me over the past year since my baby was born. So I’m very grateful to my family. I'm very grateful to President Trump, of course, for giving me this opportunity and for believing in me and for having confidence in me to relay his message to the American people from behind the White House podium, and I'm very excited to get to work on behalf of a president who has a resounding mandate from the American people. We have the Senate, we have the House, and President Trump is going to take real bold action to make a monumental change for our country and for generations to come.
Washington Reporter:
Walk us through your election night; when did you know that he had it in the bag?
Karoline Leavitt:
We felt, to be honest with you, quietly confident all day. The phrase we kept using at the Trump campaign headquarters was ‘cautiously optimistic,’ and I used it more times than I could count on television. But that was the truth. We really felt good about the way things were going because we were looking at the early voting metrics, and Republicans were outpacing Democrats in every battleground state. Key demographics for the Democrats were not turning out, and those demographics were flipping, in many cases, their support for President Trump. So we knew it was the Democrats and it was Kamala Harris who had a deficit that they had to make up for on Election Day. And we also knew that our people, President Trump's people, Republicans, prefer to vote in person on Election Day, so we felt good all day long, especially once we started to see the exit polls from some of these battleground states. We saw black voters in Atlanta, Georgia turning out in record numbers for President Trump. We saw Arab-Americans in Michigan turning out in record numbers for President Trump. We saw Hispanics in Nevada, in Arizona turning out in record numbers. We knew we were hitting the metrics that we were focused on throughout the entirety of the campaign, and once we had Georgia and North Carolina in the bag, I think we all knew where the night was headed. I will never forget the moment being backstage when they called Pennsylvania. I was with many of my colleagues on the campaign, waiting for President Trump to arrive at the convention center, and there were tears. People were fist bumping and jumping up and down and yelling, and we were all hugging, and it was an amazing moment. I get chills thinking about it, and always will, because of all the hard work of the President and our entire team came true in that moment. And it was incredible.
Washington Reporter:
No one has blazed a trail exactly like you have. Do you have any role models in your life that you look to who have helped steer you?
Karoline Leavitt:
Personally, my parents, especially my dad, who didn't go to college. He started our family business from scratch, and I saw him as a young child, working seven days a week, 9-7, coming in at night, very tired, but doing it to provide for our family, and I think he really instilled the work ethic in me that has led me to where I am. Professionally, I have many role models. I've had the great honor of working for some amazing Republican women. My first job in Washington, D.C. in President Trump’s White House, was in the Office of Presidential Correspondence. My first boss was a woman named Desiree Sayle who had been the head of the Correspondence Office under both Bushes and then under President Trump. She's still on President Trump's team to this day. I learned a lot from her, then I moved on and worked in the White House Press Office under Kayleigh McEnany, who was excellent at her job. And then I had the pleasure of working for Congresswoman Elise Stefanik on Capitol Hill, who is a working mom like me, and so I've been able to learn firsthand from some amazing women in Washington, and they have all instilled in me different lessons and values that I believe have helped me every step of the way.
Washington Reporter:
Which White House Press Secretaries have stood out to you?
Karoline Leavitt:
I've been watching a lot of tape since President Trump officially asked me to do this job. I've gone back and watched a lot of C-Span briefings dating back to Dana Perino’s time in the Bush White House. Dana and Ari Fleischer, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, were great. And of course, Kayleigh McEnany, who I saw up close and personal, having helped her prepare for many of her briefings. They all have different styles. They're different people. What I've learned in talking to them and watching their past briefings is that you have to be yourself, you have to be honest, and know that your job is to relay the president's message. It's not about me, it's about President Trump and speaking on his behalf and relaying what he wants to say and what the White House is doing directly to the American people. And I think all of the names I mentioned did a good job of that, and I hope to emulate that as well.
Washington Reporter:
What was it like announcing yourself as the incoming Press Secretary? You were touting all of Trump’s Cabinet appointments, and then all of a sudden you're posting about how you are the incoming Press Secretary.
Karoline Leavitt:
It was very surreal. It still is in this moment, talking to you now about two weeks after the announcement. I had a good feeling. I was confident that it would work out. I have been doing this job now for more than a year on the campaign trail, working closely with the president. I very much enjoy working for President Trump, but obviously this is a new ball game, and there's a lot of preparation that I plan to do between now and January 20. The weight of this job, I take it very seriously. This is an immense responsibility, and it is a privilege, and it's something I don't take lightly.
Washington Reporter:
What lessons did you learn from both your own campaign and from the Trump campaign in dealing with a media complex that is designed to destroy Republicans?
Karoline Leavitt:
Great question. I think being a candidate myself prepared me more than I ever thought it would for the doing the roles that I am doing now, speaking on behalf of the president-elect of the United States, because when it's your own name on the ballot, it's in a way more difficult actually, because you have to make decisions on policy and what you believe and what do your supporters want you to say? What do your donors want you to say? What do your stakeholders want you to say? What's best for your constituents who you're running to represent? Whereas speaking on behalf of President Trump, he's our communications director. He calls the shots, and it's my job to execute his message, to double down and to deliver it to the American public in the most effective way possible. But I think being a candidate myself and understanding the gravity of what it means when your name is on a ballot and it's your name in the story, you want everything to go right, and you want it to you want to be truthful and honest, and so I understand the expectation President Trump has for us as his staff, having been a candidate myself before, of course, on a very different level.
Washington Reporter:
Most journalists in the White House briefing room will hate you no matter what you do. How do you plan to interact with those people in the new job?
Karoline Leavitt:
If this election taught us anything, it is that the American people are no longer listening to the legacy media anymore, because if they were, then the American people would believe President Trump is equivalent to Hitler, and they wouldn't have voted for him. Nearly 80 million Americans voted for President Trump because they believe in him and in his vision for this country. It's my goal to keep my eyes focused on that and what the American people elected President Trump to do. We don't expect that the media is going to change just because President Trump won the election. The people who work in the mainstream legacy media have personal animosity and hatred, really, towards the president, and that's not going to change simply because he won, unfortunately. I wish it would. We have to be realistic and realize it won't. And President Trump did a great job, and the campaign did a great job on the campaign trail of utilizing outside, non-traditional voices, podcasters, social influencers. That's what the American people are tuning into nowadays, and I think you'll see a continuation of that when we get to the White House.
Washington Reporter:
Can you talk about the role, specifically of podcasters like Joe Rogan and Theo Von? What role do you think people like that will play over the next four years in working with your administration to get your message out?
Karoline Leavitt:
They played a vital role in relaying President Trump's message to new audiences of especially younger voters who are no longer tuning into the cable news at night; they're listening to their podcast in their car when they're driving to work, or in their headphones when they're at the gym. That's the reality of the digital age that we live in today. These podcasters and social influencers are incredibly impactful because they are not beholden to corporate interests. They're not told by their editors what to write or what to say. They are independent critical thinkers, many of whom came to their own decision to support President Trump for various reasons, and kudos to President Trump for having the courage to walk into these non-traditional media environments and sit down for a three hour conversation with Joe Rogan, for example, covering every topic under the sun. No other candidate in American history could do such a thing, because every other candidate is a scripted politician who needs to stick to talking points and topics that were predetermined by their staff. That is not the way we roll with President Trump. He is an amazing conversationalist who can talk to anyone about anything, and I think that's what helped win the hearts and minds of so many Americans, especially young people, where President Trump made historic gains across the country. I think it's his authenticity that people crave, especially in a city like Washington, where everything is fake and every politician is beholden to a teleprompter. That is not President Trump, and I think it's a huge reason why he won the election.
Washington Reporter:
Joe Rogan famously supported Bernie Sanders in the 2020 election. Do you see the embrace of people like that, and the elevation of people like Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard, who are also famous former Democrats, in the cabinet as being a way of building a broader coalition?
Karoline Leavitt:
Absolutely. President Trump is building the broadest, most diverse coalition of Americans this country has ever seen. He is giving former Democrats, as you mentioned, like RFK and Tulsi Gabbard, a seat at the table at the highest levels of our government, and he campaigned with these people. So it becomes no surprise to any American, because the American people elected him to build this coalition in our government of people who are not beholden to Big Pharma or to the military industrial complex; they are again driven by one thing, and that's doing what's best for our country and for future generations of Americans. And I think the next four years are going to be the most transformative time in our nation's history, because President Trump is putting together a cabinet in record time, by the way, of brilliant minds who are experts in their respective fields, who are not entrenched in the Washington bureaucracy, and who are going to go to D.C. on a mission to get things done, to cut government waste, to implement policies that will help and uplift people, regardless of race or religion or creed. And I'm extremely confident that all Americans are going to benefit from the policies of the Trump administration. It's going to be a very exciting time for our country, and I'm just honored to be the Press Secretary who gets to talk about it every day.
Washington Reporter:
What advice do you have for young staff, specifically women, who see you as a role model?
Karoline Leavitt:
I have three pieces of advice. First, put yourself out there. You have to grab opportunities and take advantage of them and put your best foot forward. Secondly, work as hard as you possibly can at everything you do. I don't care if it's an unpaid internship, phone banking, door knocking, or a job that you hate — work hard at it anyway, because you will learn lessons along the way of what you like, what you don't like, and what you ultimately want to be when you get to that pinnacle of your career. And thirdly, respect everyone you work with. Treat everyone with kindness. There's a lot of backstabbing in politics. Don't be a backstabber, because your intern could someday be your boss. So remember that you should respect everyone you meet, because it's a very small world in Washington, D.C., and you want to have that respect from your colleagues as you try to grow in your career and get to the next level.
Washington Reporter:
And then finally, what would you have said to yourself four years ago to prepare for this insane journey? You ran for Congress, worked on the Trump campaign in 2024, and you're now going to be running the briefing rooms in the room that you worked in four years ago.
Karoline Leavitt:
Buckle up. It's gonna be a long ride. There’s gonna be a lot of sleepless nights, laughs, tears, a lot of personal sacrifice. That's another piece of advice too. If you want to get to the next level, you have to be willing to make personal sacrifices. That means missing weddings, missing bachelorette parties. I have sadly missed out on events like bachelorette parties of my very close friends. I missed out on many days with my newborn child, and that's what it takes to be successful and to really make it in this world. Politics is a blood sport, and it's cutthroat, and you have to be willing to do the work.
Washington Reporter:
Karoline, thanks so much for your time.