White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s Congressional Campaign Took Hundreds Of Thousands Of Dollars In Illegal Donations

Karoline Leavitt, 27, who served as Donald Trump’s campaign spokeswoman, became the youngest White House press secretary this week. 

But she got off to a rocky start after campaign finance filings showed that her losing congressional campaign was in debt by over $300,000 after being forced to refund donations that were more than legal limits allowed. Leavitt has not held a briefing yet and has not responded to the report. 

In November, Trump announced Leavitt as his choice for the role, saying that he was confident she would “excel at the podium and help deliver our message to the American People as we Make America Great Again.” Leavitt also previously served in the White House press office during the first Trump administration.

Leavitt, a native of New Hampshire, studied communications and political science at Saint Anslew College. During her school years, she interned at Fox News. She told Politico in 2020 that she gained her “first glimpse into the world of press,” which led her to pursue a career in press relations. Shortly after graduating, Leavitt began working for Trump, first as a presidential speechwriter and later as an assistant press secretary, according to the website for her 2022 run for Congress.

After leaving the White House, Leavitt served as Rep. Elise Stefanik’s (R-New York) communications director. She then departed from the role to run for Congress and won the Republican nomination for New Hampshire’s first congressional district in 2022, only to lose in the general election to Democrat Chris Pappas. 

In January 2024, she joined Trump’s third presidential bid as his campaign’s press secretary. 

The first briefing of a new administration is a milestone, especially when facing the media face-to-face. In his debut briefing, Trump’s first secretary, Sean Spicer, caused controversy by inflating crowd size estimates at his first inauguration and stating that the White House may “disagree with facts sometimes.”