Karoline Leavitt spent years working her way toward Donald Trump’s White House podium.
Now the youngest person ever to serve as White House press secretary is leaving the job earlier than expected.
The 28-year-old announced last Wednesday that she’s stepping down to spend more time with her family.
Leavitt gave birth to her second child, a daughter named Viviana, in May. She returned to work roughly 11 weeks later — making her sudden departure and early exit from Trump’s administration especially surprising.
She and her 61-year-old husband, Nicholas Riccio, also share a 2-year-old, Nicholas, also known as “Niko.”
Comedian Jimmy Fallon wasted no time turning the sudden exit into late-night material the following day.
During his Thursday monologue on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” he joked about Leavitt seeking peace after all she endured in Washington.
BREAKING: Karoline Leavitt resigns as White House Press Secretary
— Rajat Jain (@RajatJain) August 14, 2026
Jimmy Fallon’s take is hilarious as hell.🤣 pic.twitter.com/o7xtczt1PH
“President Trump is looking for a new press secretary after Karoline Leavitt announced she’s stepping down to spend more time with her family,” Fallon told viewers in the Aug. 13 episode. “Between the non-stop White House construction and Trump, she wanted to be around something way quieter: a baby.”
But Fallon wasn’t finished. According to the Daily Beast, Leavitt’s decision caught Trump completely off guard. Reports suggested he didn’t want one of his favorite administration figures to leave.
One source said Trump “really didn’t want her to leave as he trusts her.” Another claimed that Leavitt had been seeking a way to “politely step down with his blessing.”
“Trump was surprised by Leavitt’s decision,” Fallon joked. “She was like, ‘I wanted to wait for a good time, but there hasn’t been one.’”
Then came the replacement theories.
Fallon has an idea on who should replace Leavitt, saying Trump needed somebody who could “spin facts and numbers.” He also suggested that Trump’s “doctor” might be perfect for the job.
He then mentioned early reports that pointed to conservative CNN commentator Scott Jennings as a possible contender. “We’re just lucky Trump turned on his TV to a news channel. We were this close to Press Secretary Bluey,” cracked Fallon.
A Leavitt impersonator appeared in a segment, snapping after becoming the White House “punching bag” before pulling out several cans of beer.
Fallon then played what he jokingly called Leavitt’s Trump-era theme song: Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline.” He rewrote the lyrics to poke fun at her constant defense of Trump, including her attempts to dismiss jokes about his “tiny hands” and defend his questionable claims during White House briefings.
Online readers, however, had an unsupported but darker theory about why Leavitt is suddenly ready to go.
Online readers piled on, with several suggesting she left due to her experience dealing with Trump’s behavior.
“She can not take care 80 yrs old baby,” one wrote. Another quipped, “She had lots of practice dealing with 4 year old mentality.”
“She saw the writing on the wall, believed it, and decided to save herself. Smart,” another added.
The public seems happy that Leavitt “finally came to her senses” about working under Trump. Yet some suspect, “She resigned after that plane stunt he pulled. Dont blame her.”
Leavitt was not among the Trump officials left on the original plane in Turkey. The security maneuver involved an alleged Iranian assassination threat. Trump secretly switched planes after reportedly hiding in a catering vehicle. Several top aides remained behind.
The departure marks a stunning turn for someone who appeared to have wanted a place in Trump’s world since she was a teenager.
At 18, while a freshman at St. Anselm College in 2016, Leavitt attended a “Pancakes and Politics” town hall and praised then-candidate Trump before even getting to her question.
“Mr. Trump, as everyone knows and as I personally appreciate, you’re very honest and outspoken about a lot of different things,” she told him. “As my father would say, you call a spade a spade.”
She later defended Trump in her college newspaper and attacked what she called the “crooked and biased media.”
After college, she turned a White House mailroom internship during Trump’s first administration into a job as assistant press secretary, later mounting her own congressional campaign before eventually landing the job she had seemingly been preparing for all along.
And once she got there, Trump made everyone aware of how fond he was of Leavitt.
This guy is fun https://t.co/2dbl6qopf7
— Ernest Dushime (@ErnestDushime) August 11, 2025
“Where’s Karoline? Where’s my superstar?” Trump once called out during a White House event.
“She’s become a star. It’s that face. It’s that brain. It’s those lips. The way they move,” Trump gushed in a separate interview. “They move like she’s a machine gun … she’s a star, and she’s a great person actually.”
Now the former Trump admirer who climbed all the way to the White House briefing room is walking away — and whoever replaces his one-time “superstar” will have one very visible act to follow.
