Trump picks Karoline Leavitt to be press secretary

Donald Trump announced Friday that 27-year-old Karoline Leavitt will be his White House press secretary as he continues to unveil key staff.

It means the man who will be the oldest president in history at his January inauguration will have the youngest press secretary ever.

'Karoline Leavitt did a phenomenal job as the national press secretary on my historic campaign, and I am pleased to announce she will serve as White House press secretary,' he said.

'Karoline is smart, tough, and has proven to be a highly effective communicator. 

'I have the utmost confidence she will excel at the podium, and help deliver our message to the American People as we, Make America Great Again.'

Insiders told DailyMail.com that there was only ever one choice to be the public face of the White House, despite last minute jockeying by the likes of Trump lawyer Alina Habba.

Leavitt was national press secretary for the Trump campaign and impressed senior advisers with combative appearances on CNN.

'It's her job if she wants it,' was how one insider recently put it.

The role will put her under tremendous scrutiny as she handles televised briefings with the White House press corps, manages day-to-day interactions with a media intent on holding the administration to account, and appearing on TV. 

Yet the 27-year-old is already a veteran political operative, having worked in the previous Trump White House, where she was a member of then Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany's team. 

McEnany said she was an excellent choice for the role.

'Karoline is smart, tough, professional, and I have no doubt that she will excel at the podium,' she wrote on X. 'She is the perfect pick!'

As well as her White House experience, Leavitt ran for Congress in 2022. 

All before becoming a mom in the summer.

'I had just brought my newborn, my three-day-old baby home from the hospital,' she said in a recent interview with The Conservateur. 

'And I said, 'I'm going to turn on the television and watch the rally today.''

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The date was Saturday, July 13, and the rally was in Butler, Pennsylvania.

She watched with baby Nicholas in her arms as Trump was shot in the ear, avoiding death by inches 

'I looked at my husband and said, 'Looks like I'm going back to work.''

Like many junior members of the press shop, she initially joined the office of presidential correspondence, helping process and reply to incoming mail, after graduating from Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire.

From there she joined the communications team under McEnany towards the end of Trump's first term.

When he left office she went to work for high-profile New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, before making her own run for Congress in New Hampshire, the state where she grew up scooping ice cream at her parents' store.

Her effort to become the youngest woman ever elected to Congress fell 15,000 votes short in the 2022 midterms, when an expected red wave failed to materialize.

She was back in the Trump fold within weeks, joining an allied group before linking up with the campaign itself earlier this year, quickly becoming a fixture on television despite being pregnant with her first child.

That did nothing to tame her fiery, bomb-throwing style.

In June, she clashed with CNN presenter Kasie Hunt, who took her off air after they argued about whether the network's journalists could be neutral moderators in the upcoming debate.

Leavitt said the debate would be a 'hostile environment' for Trump, and that moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash had been 'biased' against him in the past.

'Ma'am, I'm going to stop this interview if you continue to attack my colleagues,' said Hunt. 

After another back and forth, Hunt ended their conversation and the camera cut away abruptly. 

Two weeks later Leavitt and her husband Nick became parents to baby Nicholas, little realizing that the election was about to enter its most tumultuous period yet, with the assassination attempt and President Joe Biden's withdrawal from the race.  

After Trump's victory last week, she promised action from day one. 

'The American people delivered a resounding victory for President Trump, and it gives him a mandate to govern as he campaigned, to deliver on the promises that he made, Leavitt said.

'Which include, on day one, launching the largest mass deportation operation of illegal immigrants that Kamala Harris has allowed into this country.

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Who does Donald Trump want in his cabinet and key staff?

Marco Rubio - Secretary of State

Pete Hegseth - Secretary of Defense

Matt Gaetz - Attorney-General

Todd Blanche - Deputy Attorney-General

Kristi Noem - Secretary of Homeland Security

Robert F Kennedy Jr - Health and Human Services Secretary 

Doug Burgum - Secretary of the Interior 

Doug Collins - Secretary of Veterans Affairs 

Mike Waltz - National Security Advisor

Tulsi Gabbard - Director of National Intelligence

John Ratcliffe - CIA Director

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy - co-chiefs of the 'Department of Government Efficiency'

Elise Stefanik - United Nations Ambassador

Mike Huckabee - Ambassador to Israel

Lee Zeldin - Environmental Protection Agency administrator

Tom Homan - Border Czar

Dean John Sauer - Solicitor General

Steven Cheung - Communications Director

Dan Scavino - Deputy Chief of Staff

Stephen Miller - Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy

Karoline Leavitt - White House Press Secretary

William McGinley - White House Counsel

Sergio Gor - Presidential Personnel Office director

Steven Witkoff - Special Envoy to Middle East

Robert Lighthizer - US trade representative

Ben Carson - TBA