Karoline Leavitt is stepping down as White House press secretary to spend more time with her husband and 2 minor children.
Leavitt’s last day in President Donald Trump’s administration is the end of August.
Trump, 80, announced Leavitt’s impending departure on Wednesday. He praised the 28-year-old as “one of my most trusted aides.”
“Karoline will now be one of my top outside advisors, and an influential voice within the Republican Party, as we work to defy History, and conclusively win the Midterm Elections,” Trump posted on his Truth Social app.
“Karoline has been a real leader in the White House, and has done a phenomenal job fighting for Justice, Liberty, and Freedom, since 2018, including our Historic Re-Election Campaign of 2024,” he added.
Rumors spread that the youngest White House press secretary ever resigned 24 hours after she learned Trump left her on an Air Force One “decoy plane” that he believed was targeted for attack.
Advanced warning of a threat to Air Force One by Iran
According to the Washington Post, Trump was hidden inside a food service cart and transferred from Air Force One to another plane on a catering truck in Turkey on July 8.
According to the newspaper, Trump secretly left Air Force One because he had advanced warning that the plane would be shot out of the sky by Iran’s military.
In a statement to ABC News regarding the Post’s reporting, the White House said, “As the President has said recently, there are many enemies of America who have their sights on him, and we use every tool at our disposal to address those threats.”
The report claims the traveling press and some White House staff were not aware that they were on a “decoy plane” while Trump flew on a different flight.
ABC News has not confirmed the details of the Washington Post‘s story.
Some skeptics find it hard to believe that Trump’s press secretary did not know he wasn’t on the same plane that she was on.
Snopes debunked the story, saying “the New York Times did not say [Trump] was smuggled out in the type of service trolley flight attendants push up and down the aisles when they serve refreshments to passengers. Instead, the story said he was transported from Air Force One to the military plane in a ‘catering container.’ A video included in the New York Times article showed the container was large enough to hold multiple people and that a flatbed truck moved it from one plane to the other.”