Leavitt Out: MAGA figures who may change Karoline Levitt as Donald Trump’s Press Secretary

Leavitt has been among the most visible members of the second Trump administration – which is probably quite hard work when your competition for TV is someone as eager for eyeballs as Donald Trump.

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Farewell, then, to Karoline Leavitt, who is stepping down as Donald Trump’s Press Secretary at the end of the month.

Leavitt has been among the most visible members of the second Trump administration – which is probably quite hard work when your competition for TV is someone as eager for eyeballs as Donald Trump.

And she has, of course, done a string of things a Press Secretary should never do. She has lied, repeatedly. She has berated and insulted members of the media from the podium. She presided over an influx of right-wing propagandists diluting the real reporters in the press room. And she was the face of the decision to exclude the Associated Press from some Trump events in retaliation for their refusal to change their stylebook to call the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.

But none of those was the reason she left. A source reportedly told CNN last night that when she took a month off in May following the birth of her daughter, Trump would often contact her “and, at times, asked when she planned to return”.

And in her statement on X, Leavitt said: “The truth is since returning to the White House after the birth of my daughter, I have felt in my heart that I cannot be the best mom my two young children deserve while devoting the constant time, energy, and attention required of the White House Press Secretary.”

It would be a terrible shame if she had been forced out of the job because she had a young family, rather than for all of the manifest reasons she’s a terrible Press Secretary.

Who will replace her? Anna Kelly would be among the obvious choices, to the point of being a bit boring. She is among Leavitt’s deputies and would keep continuity. Steven Cheung, the White House Comms Director is one of the most combative people in the White House. In fact, he’s one of the most combative people on Planet Earth outside of the UFC. He might be a bit noisy for the role.

But the top bets on America’s prediction markets are going on Alina Habba. A former Trump advisor and lawyer, she stepped down as acting US Attorney for New Jersey after an appeals court found she’d been continuing in the role despite her interim appointment having expired, and the Administration failing to get the Senate to confirm her. She’s one of a string of “interim” Trump administration prosecutors who have had their appointments challenged.

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SURPRISE!

Many of you will now be familiar with the story of what actually happened when Trump switched planes before leaving the NATO summit in Turkey, fearing an assassination attempt by Iran.

I’ve done a handy video here if you need a catchup.

But in brief, we thought Trump had just switched from Qatar Force One to the old baby blue Air Force One, which has more security countermeasures.

In fact, Trump switched planes AGAIN, hopping out of Air Force One into a catering van and trundling over to a third plane, in what’s being described as the Eras Tour manoeuvre, (after the secret roller track under the stage at Taylor Swift’s concerts that allow her to get from one side to the other at lightning speed) and leaving the old AF1 as a decoy.

A decoy carrying the oblivious press corps, several staff and cabinet members, only some of whom were in on the caper.

And from there we learn some fascinating elements of the hierarchy of The Trump Regime. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and treasury Secretary Scott Bessent both flew in the decoy plane, knowing Trump wouldn’t be there, in order to “protect the line of succession” for some reason former Fox News host turned “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth, and for an even less defined reason Natalie Harp, Trump’s personal assistant, known as the “human printer” because she’s the one who brings him printouts of flattering news stories all day, were on the secret plane along with the President.

Could you imagine if an Iranian missile had taken down baby blue Air Force One, leaving the whole world thinking Trump was dead…and the travelling press corps, half the cabinet and Stephen Miller along with them…only for Trump to sweep out of the secret plane yelling “SURPRISE!”, like a pantomime dame coming up through the trapdoor in a puff of smoke. He’s behind you. He was behind you the whole time.

Another fun fact: Air Force One isn’t the name of a plane, it’s the callsign for whatever plane the President is on. And the decoy kept the callsign during the caper. That means, possibly for the first time ever – or at least the first time it’s been documented – Air Force One did not have the President aboard.

Now, about that election everyone’s talking about

A brief word about the election that everyone’s been glued to – where a right-wing party leader is facing a challenge from a comedy character.

I am, of course, talking about the Minnesota Republican Governor Primary, where Mike Lindell – the MyPillow guy – last night lost to Lisa Demuth.

Before 2020, Mike Lindell was best known as the “MyPillow guy” – he owns a company supplying (apparently perfectly good) soft furnishings, which advertises almost exclusively on right wing TV news channels like Fox News and Newsmax.

Lindell ingratiated himself with Trump by parroting his false claims of fraud in the 2020 election, which Trump lost to Joe Biden. He became a major figure in the MAGAverse and an occasional visitor to the Oval Office. He also lost $2.3 million defamation case brought by a former employee of a voting machine company – but has consistently stuck by his baseless claims that the election was stolen.

Lindell has also launched Lindell TV, his own streaming “news” channel – with several of its “reporters” gaining accreditation to the White House. If you ever hear someone asking Trump a particularly friendly question during a presser or pool clip, it probably emerged from a Lindell TV propagandist.

He lost his primary challenge to state House Speaker Lisa Demuth on Wednesday. He lost quite handily, by like 11 percentage points.

At the time of writing, he has refused to concede defeat. It’s unclear whether he actually thinks there’s something nefarious going on with the voting in the primary, or if he just wanted to wait for it to be mathematically impossible for him to win, given the remaining uncounted votes.

Either way, Lindell may have lost, but he’s going down swinging. What’s interesting about it though, is that Lindell had the endorsement of Donald Trump.

A Trump endorsement in a Primary Election is almost a guaranteed win. (Whether the MAGA-backed candidates can win a general election against a Democrat remains to be seen).

But it’s a sign of how things are in Trump’s Republican Party. Perhaps his influence is on the wane.