Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s ‘Machine Gun,’ Has a New Gig at Fox News
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
President Trump recruited a fleet of Fox News personalities for his second administration, filling key cabinet positions with the likes of Pete Hegseth, Sean Duffy and Mehmet Oz.
Now a homegrown star of the Trump White House is headed to Fox News.
Karoline Leavitt, who until August served as Mr. Trump’s press secretary and chief spokeswoman, is joining the Rupert Murdoch-owned channel next month as an on-air contributor, the network said on Monday.
Ms. Leavitt, 29 and a steely and nimble presence at the White House lectern, was the youngest person to be appointed press secretary. She established herself as an unflinching advocate for the president, who gushed over her verbal fusillades and has said her lips “move like a ‘machine gun.’”
She often criticized mainstream media outlets and sparred with reporters in the press room. But her presence in Mr. Trump’s inner circle meant that she could provide journalists with information directly from the president.
In May, after giving birth to her second child , Ms. Leavitt went on maternity leave and ultimately said she would leave the White House to spend more time with her young children. At the time, Ms. Leavitt vowed to “remain a vocal advocate for MAGA and the Republican Party.”
She is expected to provide commentary across numerous Fox News shows — including both opinion and news programming — when she starts on Nov. 1.
Fox News has close ties with Mr. Trump, who is defended nightly by prime-time stars like Sean Hannity and Jesse Watters. Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law, hosts a weekly show, and cabinet secretaries regularly appear on Fox programs.
But the relationship is complex.
Mr. Trump frequently gripes about the network’s coverage, including last week when he declared on social media that Fox News airs “a completely negative narrative” and added that “MAGA, and REAL Patriots, will never like Fox!” On Sunday, he fired off another post lambasting “Fox & Friends” and complaining that the network took his ally Maria Bartiromo off the air.
(Ms. Bartiromo’s exit was another example of tension. She lost her show partly because she notified a Trump adviser that Fox News had decided not to cover some of Mr. Trump’s recent claims about a stolen election. In 2023, Fox News paid $787 million to settle a defamation lawsuit brought by a voting technology company.)
Ms. Leavitt is the third of Mr. Trump’s former press secretaries to land a post-White House gig at the network. Kayleigh McEnany, who served in the role for the final stretch of Mr. Trump’s first term, is now a co-host of the lunchtime show “Outnumbered” and hosts her own Saturday program; she started at Fox in 2021 as a contributor. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, another press secretary during Mr. Trump’s first term, was a paid contributor at Fox from 2019 to 2021.
The path from the White House lectern to a TV studio is a familiar one. Dana Perino, a press secretary to former President George W. Bush, has worked for Fox News since 2009. Jen Psaki, a press secretary to President Joseph R. Biden Jr., joined MSNBC in 2022 and now hosts one of the network’s prime-time shows.
“Karoline’s firsthand experience in the White House and on the presidential campaign trail gives her a distinct understanding of today’s political landscape,” Suzanne Scott, the chief executive of Fox News Media, said in a statement.
Ms. Leavitt has left Washington and now lives with her family in New Hampshire, where she grew up. In a statement, she pledged to bring to Fox News “the unique perspective and candor that defined my tenure with the Trump administration.”
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Oh drats, I don't get FOX.
I 'do' get FOX. . . and yet I do not 'get' FOX.
I do no not need lying, delusional thinking in my day to day life experiences. In fact, I tune out "Trump-news" and watch lesser MSNBC because the manipulation is palpable even on "liberal-news."
In such cases (as they may be) you can sense (feel) the manipulation occurring—even when well-intentioned it can be wrong and harmful.
She's going to disappoint all the octogenarians that wanted her feet pics on Only Fans.
kudos to her for converting her DC dick handling talents into a remote job, while she stays home to indoctrinate her maga spawn into being good little christo-fascists ...
I don't watch Fox News unless it's on in the Man Cave for the dogs
My goodness. . . MAGA dogs?! How will you deal with the aggressive behaviors?!
LOL!
I think Mr G is guilty of animal abuse
... appropriate mental level of audience for their broadcasts.
Maybe her rich husband is getting ready to dump her and she's going to need the paycheck.
Another lying fraud as a talking head on Fox? I'm shocked. Not.
not!
I thought she would have been a great body double for actress Rosamund Pike, who played Jane Bennet in Pride and Prejudice.
Karoline Leavitt
Rosamund Pike
But I guess if they ever make a movie about Karoline Leavitt or a political one where she is a character, Rosamund Pike is the perfect actress to play her part.
Why would you, she, or anyone want to be tainted with the association?
I liked Pike in Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time series.
ditto
The worst P&P of any ... burn it.