← Chronicle · Departure · August 27, 2026

Karoline Leavitt Departs as Press Secretary

Karoline Leavitt departed as White House Press Secretary on August 27, 2026. She had held the podium since January 2025, fronting the administration’s briefings through its first nineteen months.

The departure had been previewed in public three days earlier: at the August 24, 2026 back-to-school event in the Rose Garden, President Trump thanked her from the podium — noting her newborn, saying “she decided she loved her children more than she loved Donald Trump… she has to go home and spend time with her children,” and calling her “a great, great press secretary” (see the August 24, 2026 video page). No successor was named with her departure; her announced successor, Katie Zacharia, did not take the podium until October 2026 and was out within days, leaving the chair vacant (see the October 17, 2026 entry).

Sources: Banked research in this site’s files (research cluster C): Leavitt, Press Secretary January 2025–August 2026, left August 27, 2026. The White House, back-to-school Rose Garden event, August 24, 2026 (official upload).