White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s decision to quit at the end of the month has caused chaos in Trump world.
Leavitt is the fifth high-profile female staffer working for President Donald Trump to abruptly leave, and her departure is reportedly not being taken well.
“There were really only two women who could both appease Trump and challenge him: Karoline Leavitt and Susie Wiles. There is concern on how this administration will move forward with so much work ahead,” one source described as close to Trump opined to the Daily Mail.
Leavitt, 28, returned from maternity leave on July 16, following the birth of her second child with husband Nicholas Riccio, 60, on May 1.
She is said to have been planning to leave the White House for some time but was trying to figure out the best way to let Trump, 80, down.
But while she was on maternity leave, Trump reportedly contacted Leavitt regularly, wanting to know when she would return. She ultimately came back early at the president’s insistence, according to the Mail.
Her decision to quit was “no doubt one of the hardest decisions of her life so far,” an insider said.
Leavitt joins former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, former Attorney General Pam Bondi, former Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer and former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem among the high-ranking Trump women who have either quit or been pushed out since March of this year.
“What was meant to be a showcase of administrative discipline has devolved into an exhausting exercise in crisis management,” an insider complained.
“Trump demands absolute loyalty and expects immediate results. So that creates a meat-grinder environment where work-life balance is non-existent,” a female administration official told the Daily Mail.
“Not only that, but they have to walk the ethics line of being devoted to Trump and also doing the right thing.”
There is reportedly already a contest among ambitious staffers to fill Leavitt’s post, with another young blonde, former Department of Homeland Security press secretary Katie Zacharia, a frontrunner alongside principal deputy press secretary Anna Kelly, Trump lawyer Alina Habba, and CNN political commentator Scott Jennings.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
