Trump Press Shop Shares Plan for Who Will Fill in for Karoline Leavitt During Her Maternity Leave

Sarah RumpfApr 24th, 2026, 2:36 pm
 
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt

AP Photo/Alex Brandon

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt will be going on maternity leave, and the comms shop has a plan for while she’s out, Politico White House bureau chief Dasha Burns reported on Friday.

Last December, Leavitt announced she and her husband, Nicholas Riccio, were expecting their second child, a girl due in May. The couple already shares a son, Niko, who was born in July 2024. The news meant that Leavitt was the first White House Press Secretary to be pregnant while holding that job title.

Leavitt is “scheduled to have her second child next week,” reported Burns in Friday’s Politico Playbook, and “will be returning to the podium after her maternity leave, though it’s unclear exactly how many weeks she’ll take.”

The White House Press Office will not be appointing anyone to “formally” fill in for Leavitt while she’s out, Burns wrote, “but the comms shop is planning to have some familiar faces at the podium to brief the press including VP JD Vance, Cabinet officials or even [President Donald] Trump himself.”

White House communications director Steven Cheung and the other staffers on Leavitt’s team (Pat Adams, Anna Kelly, Kush Desai, Abigail Jackson, Liz Huston, Taylor Rogers, Davis Ingle, Allison Schuster, Olivia Wales, Micah Stopperich, Ellie Acra, Georgia O’Neil, and Kieghan Nangle) will continue in their roles, Burns added.

Leavitt confirmed the report in a tweet quoting Burns’ post and tagging the members of her “incredible team.”

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Sarah Rumpf - Contributing Editor

Sarah Rumpf joined Mediaite in 2020 and is a Contributing Editor focusing on politics, law, and the media. A native Floridian, Sarah attended the University of Florida, graduating with a double major in Political Science and German, and earned her Juris Doctor, cum laude, from the UF College of Law. Sarah's writing has been featured at National Review, The Daily Beast, Reason, Law&Crime, Independent Journal Review, Texas Monthly, The Capitolist, Breitbart Texas, Townhall, RedState, The Orlando Sentinel, and the Austin-American Statesman, and her political commentary has led to appearances on television, radio, and podcast programs across the globe. Follow Sarah on Threads, Twitter, and Bluesky.