Karoline Leavitt, the White House Press Secretary, has had a hectic two weeks on the job, gaining a multitude of new supporters for her sharp retorts and acquiring monikers like the ‘fake news grim reaper’ and the ‘spinmeister.’
She has appeared in the briefing room twice in the past week and kept up a steady stream of TV appearances.
This has resulted in numerous headlines lamenting that Donald Trump is overwhelming the press with information, making it challenging for fact-checkers and adversaries to counter.
Leavitt says there’s only one reason for the rapid pace in the White House press shop.
‘I believe the primary motivation for accomplishing so much in such a brief period is the president’s commitment to delivering,’ she shares with DailyMail.com from her office in the West Wing, reflecting on a bustling week in the limelight.
He told his transition team he planned to sign as much as he could, as fast as he could, she continues, to show that he was going to keep his campaign promises.
‘And so we’ve done a lot,’ she says without the slightest hint of an apology. ‘I think it’s very difficult for the legacy media, especially the cable news folks, to keep up with all we are doing.’
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, 27, is the youngest person to hold the post. She told DailyMail.com that Donald Trump was a president in a hurry
Leavitt arrives for her first briefing as White House press secretary on Tuesday
Her desk is covered with printouts, dotted with handwriting, as she prepares for her second briefing of the week.
She has to be ready to handle anything from follow-ups on the president’s claim that diversity hires were behind the Reagan airport disaster, to the latest in Ukraine.
The job is one of the highest profile in the White House—second only to the president—and as the face of the administration every wardrobe change or hair style is subject to intense scrutiny.
On top of that, she was a constant presence at the president’s side during his first trip of his second presidency, flying with him on Air Force One to North Carolina, California, Nevada, and Florida over four days.
Grueling enough for anyone, let alone a 27-year-old mother with a six-month-old at home.
A day after flying back into Washington she gave her first White House briefing to the assembled press corps.
And she wasted no time in telling them what she thought of them.
‘Americans’ trust in mass media has fallen to a record low,’ she said straight off the top, as she announced plans to bring in new media and the sort of bloggers and podcasters who had been denied access in the past.
Leavitt is married to Nicholas Riccio, a real estate developer. She gave birth to their son in July last year, and was back at work within days after Trump survived assassination attempt
Leavitt with her assistants as she prepares to talk to reporters on the North drive of the White House, just outside the briefing room
Leavitt was at Trump’s side during a four-day trip through North Carolina, California, Nevada and Florida. She is seen here as Trump fielded questions from reporters on Air Force One
It was all delivered with the sort of pleasant smile that suggested she was the matron of a home for the demented and the infirm, welcoming the inmates to a tea party.
Yet even the New York Times managed a backhanded compliment, describing her as ‘steely and unflinching’ in its headline.
And CNN’s factchecker called her a ‘spinmeister,’ as if press secretaries down the ages have not avoided tricky questions or massaged the facts.
Another nickname arrived a day later, during a testy exchange with Good Morning America host Michael Strahan.
He probed her about plans to force federal government workers back into their offices.
‘Is there any concern that we risk losing people with years of experience like doctors and let’s say, scientists?’ he asked.
Leavitt shot back: ‘Well most doctors who work in actual hospitals and medical institutions have to show up in the office.’
It was a clear win for the youngest press secretary in history. Her supporters celebrated the victory online and dubbed her the ‘fake news grim reaper.’
Video of the exchange went viral on social media, rapidly earning more than three million views.
On Friday she was back in the briefing room to send journalists home with a bunch of headlines. It is all part of a cadence that will see her in front of the media three times a week on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, unless the president is doing his own press conference.
Good Morning America host Michael Strahan grilled White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt about Donald Trump’s move to force federal workers back into the office
Leavitt was back in the briefing room on Friday afternoon. She expects to brief three times a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays
She outlined plans for the Israeli prime minister to visit next week and previewed swingeing new tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China at the weekend.
But in a sign of how this administration is light years away from the one that left office two weeks ago, she also had to defend the president’s use of an expletive a day earlier.
There was even time to mock the media for their doubt that the Covid virus had leaked from a Chinese laboratory, now that the CIA had decided it was the most likely theory (albeit with a low level of certainty).
‘Several years ago, when I was working in this press shop, and President Trump would take to this podium to brief the American people on COVID-19, he suggested that COVID very well may have came from a lab in Wuhan, China, and many members in this very room mocked him for that,’ she said.
‘Said he was spewing conspiracy theories. He was not. We now know that to be the confirmable truth.’
It was just one of countless barbs she delivered during the second week of the presidency, and her first week taking center stage.
And she told DailyMail.com not to expect any change of pace in the weeks ahead.
‘Our team is made up of exceptionally qualified and hard working individuals who are here when the sun is rising and stay until long after the sun has set,’ she said.
‘And you know, I think we are delivering on what the president promised and doing exactly what the American people expected out of a Trump term.’
