President Donald Trump’s new press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced a shake-up for White House reporters in her highly-anticipated first briefing on Tuesday.
Leavitt, 27, announced that two seats usually reserved for White House staff would become ‘new media’ seats – and those individuals would get to ask the first questions.
Traditionally the wire service, the Associated Press, gets the first question – while the White House Correspondents’ Association dictates which outlets get which seats in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room.
‘Starting today this seat in the front of the room, which is usually occupied by the press secretary’s staff, will be called the new media seat,’ she said. ‘My team will review the applications and give credentials to new media applicants who meet our criteria and pass United States Secret Service requirements to enter the White House complex.’
On Tuesday, Axios’ Mike Allen got the first question followed by Matthew Boyle, the longtime political correspondent for Breitbart, the right-wing outlet that was previously led by Trump strategist Steve Bannon.
Leavitt also announced that the Trump 2.0 administration would restore the press passes of 440 whose passes were ‘wrongly revoked’ by the Biden administration.
‘We welcome independent journalists, podcasters, social media influencers and content creators to apply for credentials to cover this White House,’ she said.
Leavitt made history when she took the podium Tuesday – as the country’s youngest press secretary.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt held her first briefing Tuesday and kicked it off with huge changes to how she’d conduct briefings
She is the eighth woman to hold the position – a number that has ticked up in the last two administrations.
Three out of the four press secretaries Trump hired in his first term were women – Sarah Huckabee Sanders, now the governor of Arkansas, Stephanie Grisham and Kayleigh McEnany.
Both of President Joe Biden‘s press secretaries were also women – Jen Psaki and Karine Jean-Pierre.
Leavitt, a New Hampshire native, interned for Fox News and worked under McEnany as an assistant press secretary during the first Trump administration.
She ran for Congress in 2022, hoping to knock off Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas in the state’s 1st Congressional district.
Leavitt won the Republican primary – but fell to Pappas in the general election.
In January 2024 she became a national press secretary for the Trump campaign.
On November 15, 2024, Trump announced that Leavitt would be the first White House press secretary of his second administration.
She gaggled with reporters on board Air Force One but waited to brief until eight days into the administration – a slightly longer delay than Psaki, who briefed on inauguration day, or Sean Spicer, who famously declared Trump had the ‘largest audience to ever witness an inauguration – period’ on January 21, one day into the new administration.
Leavitt is married to real estate developer Nicholas Riccio and became a first-time mother amid the 2024 campaign – on July 10 – just days before Trump was shot at the Butler, Pennsylvania rally and ahead of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
