Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s ‘machine gun,’ has a new gig at Fox News

President Donald Trump recruited a fleet of Fox News personalities for his second administration, filling key Cabinet positions with the likes of Pete Hegseth, Sean Duffy and Mehmet Oz.

Now a homegrown star of the Trump White House is headed to Fox News.

Karoline Leavitt, who until August served as Trump’s press secretary and chief spokesperson, is joining the Rupert Murdoch-owned channel next month as an on-air contributor, the network said Monday.

Leavitt, 29, a steely and nimble presence at the White House lectern, was the youngest person to be appointed press secretary. She established herself as an unflinching advocate for the president, who gushed over her verbal fusillades and has said her lips “move like a ‘machine gun.’”

She often criticized mainstream media outlets and sparred with reporters in the press room. But her presence in Trump’s inner circle meant that she could provide journalists with information directly from the president.

In May, after giving birth to her second child, Leavitt went on maternity leave and ultimately said she would leave the White House to spend more time with her young children. At the time, Leavitt vowed to “remain a vocal advocate for MAGA and the Republican Party.”

She is expected to provide commentary across numerous Fox News shows — including both opinion and news programming — when she starts on Nov. 1.

Fox News has close ties with Trump, who is defended nightly by primetime stars like Sean Hannity and Jesse Watters. Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law, hosts a weekly show, and Cabinet secretaries regularly appear on Fox programs.

But the relationship is complex.

Trump frequently gripes about the network’s coverage, including last week when he declared on social media that Fox News airs “a completely negative narrative” and added that “MAGA, and REAL Patriots, will never like Fox!” On Sunday, he fired off another post lambasting “Fox & Friends” and complaining that the network took his ally Maria Bartiromo off the air.

(Bartiromo’s exit was another example of tension. She lost her show partly because she notified a Trump adviser that Fox News had decided not to cover some of Trump’s recent claims about a stolen election. In 2023, Fox News paid $787 million to settle a defamation lawsuit brought by a voting technology company.)

Leavitt is the second of Trump’s former press secretaries to land a post-White House gig at the network. Kayleigh McEnany, who served in the role for the final stretch of Trump’s first term, is now a co-host of the lunchtime show “Outnumbered” and hosts her own Saturday program; she started at Fox in 2021 as a contributor. (Dana Perino, a press secretary to former President George W. Bush, has worked for the network since 2009.)

“Karoline’s firsthand experience in the White House and on the presidential campaign trail gives her a distinct understanding of today’s political landscape,” Suzanne Scott, the CEO of Fox News Media, said in a statement.

Leavitt has left Washington and now lives with her family in New Hampshire, where she grew up. In a statement, she pledged to bring to Fox News “the unique perspective and candor that defined my tenure with the Trump administration.”