Former White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt is helping President Trump find a tough, loyal replacement after Katie Zacharia lasted just five days on the job.
In a Fox News Digital exclusive from Manchester, N.H., Leavitt said she has offered her counsel as Trump searches for the next voice at the podium following a brief and unsuccessful handoff.
Zacharia took over earlier this month and was out after five days, a stretch already described as the shortest-serving White House press secretary tenure in U.S. history. Leavitt, who left the post Aug. 27, made clear the role demands more than a résumé.
She put it plainly when asked about the quick exit.
"We wish Katie the best. The job obviously was not for her, but we wish her and her family well,"
Leavitt told the outlet.
Leavitt knows the briefing room pressure firsthand. She served nearly two years as press secretary after Trump’s return to office and left as the youngest person ever to hold the job. She said the position is widely viewed as one of the hardest in politics.
"I've offered my help to the president to help him select someone who can serve him and the country well," she said.
The job, she added, takes heavy preparation, and performance only becomes clear once someone steps to the microphones. Trump, she reported, is still reviewing options. Plenty of people want the post.
Leavitt kept her private advice private but sketched the traits she believes the president already understands he needs.
"Nobody understands the press better than Donald Trump. He knows he needs someone who is tough, who is smart, who understands his policies, who is loyal, and who can go out there and put up a fight,"
she said.
That standard matches the stakes of a second-term White House that faces daily scrutiny and expects its spokesperson to defend policy without flinching. Soft answers and thin prep do not survive long in that room.
Zacharia, a political commentator, arrived at the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room on Oct. 13, 2026, after Leavitt’s departure. Five days later the experiment was over. The White House is again shopping for a permanent fit.
The rapid turnover followed earlier jockeying that began the moment Leavitt signaled she was leaving, a process captured when Leavitt stepped down as White House press secretary and names started circulating. Trump’s first choice after that exit did not stick.
Her appointment itself had been framed as a clean handoff when Trump appointed Katie Zacharia to the post. The five-day result showed how quickly the job can sort people out.
Leavitt refused to pile on. She wished Zacharia and her family well and turned the focus back to finding someone who can do the work. Trump, she said, continues to look over the field.
Leavitt’s own exit was driven by home life, not political fatigue. She has two very young children, including a daughter born in May, and said she left Washington to be a wife and mother.
"Right now I'm really focused on being a wife and a mother to my two very young children. That's why I made the decision to leave Washington. So we're just happy to be home and enjoying the ride."
She is set to become a Fox News contributor at the start of November, a next chapter already noted as Karoline Leavitt set to join Fox News after her White House service. She stressed she has no plans to run for office again in the near term or later.
"No, I'm all set. I don't have any plans to run for office in the near future at all, or in the future at all," she said, adding she is home with her family and excited about it.
Her path to the briefing room was built over years inside the Trump orbit. After graduating from Saint Anselm College in 2019, she interned in the first Trump White House, later served as assistant press secretary, then worked as communications director for Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York. She also served as spokeswoman for MAGA Inc. and as press secretary for the 2024 Trump campaign before taking the top communications job.
In 2022 she won a hard-fought Republican nomination in New Hampshire’s 1st District and lost the general election to Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas. That campaign experience, plus the MAGA Inc. stretch later covered when Leavitt headed to MAGA Inc. in earlier reporting on her moves, shaped the combative style she now recommends for whoever follows Zacharia.
Leavitt described the press secretary post as an “amazing job” that opens real opportunities, even while calling it one of the toughest assignments in politics. She said she talks with Trump about what the work actually entails, and that he already knows the requirements well.
A photo from Aug. 21, 2026, shows Trump speaking to reporters at Joint Base Andrews, Md., with Leavitt alongside him before they boarded Air Force One, a snapshot from the final stretch of her tenure. Six days later she stepped down. The temporary successor did not last a week.
Now the president is again weighing candidates. Leavitt’s public message is consistent: the next press secretary must be ready to fight for the administration’s record, master the policy, stay loyal, and handle a hostile press corps without folding. Anything less, the five-day experiment already showed, will not hold.
White House communications only work when the person at the podium can take a punch and throw facts back. Trump is looking for that fighter. The country will see soon enough whether the next choice can last longer than a workweek.
