A broadcast journalist who was reprimanded—then quit—after praising far-right firebrand Charlie Kirk in an emotional on-air tribute has been named White House assistant press secretary.
“I’m excited to announce that I am joining the Trump Administration as Asst. White House Press Secretary,” 24-year-old Beni Rae Harmony posted Friday on X.
“I’m incredibly grateful to President Trump for this opportunity and his trust,” she added. “I’m looking forward to this next chapter—serving the American people and continuing to fight for the American Dream.”
She signed off: “America First.”
Speculation suggested that President Donald Trump brought Harmony in as a possible replacement for his former press secretary, Karoline Leavitt. The Daily Mail described her as “glamorous.”
Harmony has served for the last year as a White House correspondent for Real America’s Voice, a right-wing streaming network linked to Steve Bannon and his War Room YouTube program.
She moved to Real America after quitting her job as a news anchor at WICS-ABC20 in Springfield, Illinois, where she was suspended for launching an emotional on-air tribute to Kirk after he was fatally shot last September.
She had previously worked in political communications and with Kirk and his group Turning Point USA as a “producer and administrator” from 2021 to 2022, according to her LinkedIn profile. She considered Kirk a mentor. (She also interned with former Florida GOP Congressman Matt Gaetz.)
Harmony seems to have caught Trump’s eye. She traveled with the press pool during his trip to Ireland last month. Last week she took CNN’s spot on Air Force One when the elderly president traveled to Knoxville for a college football game between the Tennessee Volunteers and the Texas Longhorns. Trump, 80, had bounced CNN from the coverage, even though a judge had earlier ordered the Trump administration to lift the president’s ban on the network, along with MS NOW and Politico, for covering what Trump claimed was “fake news.”
Harmony’s appointment was confirmed in a statement by Anna Kelly, the White House principal deputy press secretary.
“Beni Rae Harmony has been a trusted voice for the MAGA movement as a White House correspondent,” Kelly said. “She will be an outstanding addition to President Trump’s communications team as an assistant press secretary. We look forward to having her on board.”
