Dem
47
GOP
53
Yesterday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that she will step down from her post at the end of the month, and will become an outside adviser.
Officially, Leavitt's reason for departing is that she wants to spend more time with her young children. Maybe that is true, but we won't be too surprised if she ends up on Fox's airwaves before the end of the year. There's a lot more money in lying and obfuscating on Fox than in lying and obfuscating for Trump. Oh, and it's fewer hours per week, plus you generally sign a multi-year contract, so you don't have to be constantly worried about being fired by a mercurial boss if he decides to blame you for this week's fiasco.
Lots of outlets had pieces suggesting this is a "bombshell" development that will reverberate widely. To take one example, the Mediaite headline was "Karoline Leavitt's Sudden Exit from Trump White House Sends Shockwaves." To take another, CNN had a piece headlined "Why Karoline Leavitt might be impossible for Trump to replace."
We don't really get it. It is true that Leavitt is part of the inner circle (which apparently is defined as "you get to ride on the actual Air Force One, rather than the decoy"). However, she'll still be available at the other end of the phone. As to her actual job, Trump basically acts as his own press secretary. You could make a pretty good argument that this is the only job he does effectively, because it's the only job he has enthusiasm for. Lest we forget, during Trump v1.0, he had a press secretary (Stephanie Grisham) who did not hold a single press conference during the entire 1½ years she held the position.
We suppose it's possible that Leavitt managed to rein Trump in on occasion, and that the loss of that restraint is not going to be helpful just 3 months before the midterms. But that's only a guess and, besides, Chief of Staff Susie Wiles should be just as able to rein Trump in, assuming that there is anyone who is actually able to do so. (Z)