The official story is warm and fuzzy. Karoline Leavitt, the youngest White House press secretary in history, is stepping down to spend more time with her beautiful young children. The president “totally understands and respects” the decision. He’s even making her “one of my top outside advisors.” Everybody wins. Group hug.
Now read the story again.
Leavitt gave birth to her daughter on May 1. She went on maternity leave April 27. Federal employees are entitled to 12 weeks of paid parental leave. She came back in nine. Nine weeks. She cut her own leave short by three weeks, and the reason, according to CNN’s Alayna Treene, is that the president of the United States would not stop calling her while she was home with a newborn.
Ask yourself what kind of boss calls a woman on maternity leave, not once, not twice, but repeatedly, to ask when she’s coming back. Not to check on her. Not to say congratulations. To find out when she’d leave her infant and get back to the podium. That’s not a boss who respects your decision. That’s a boss who thinks your body, your time, and your family are all on loan from him.
And the spin machine wants you to believe this was her idea. That she just woke up one morning and felt “in her heart” that she couldn’t be the best mom. Well, maybe she did feel that. Maybe she also felt the phone buzzing all hours of the day and thought, I can’t do this anymore.
Benjamin Henry Latrobe (Public domain) via Wikimedia CommonsFunny how the administration was “surprised” by her decision, and Trump “asked her to stay.” If this were truly a mutual, warm, planned departure, why would anyone be surprised? Why would he have to ask her to stay? Because the plan was for her to come back and keep doing the job. The plan was never for her to leave. She left because she was driven out.
The “top outside advisor” title is the golden parachute they hand you when they need you to smile on the way through the door. It costs nothing. It means nothing. It’s the political equivalent of a gift card and a cake in the breakroom. Stephen Miller, who has never met a situation he couldn’t make worse, called her a “close friend” and a “role model” on Fox News. When Stephen Miller is eulogizing your tenure, you know the knife is already in.
Here’s what the establishment doesn’t want you to notice. This is a 28-year-old woman who ran for Congress, lost, clawed her way into the most visible communications job in the country, and became the second-longest-serving press secretary Trump has ever had. That’s the bar. That’s the ceiling. Trump burned through four press secretaries in his first term. He’s on his second now. The turnover isn’t a bug. It’s the system. They use these people up, squeeze every drop of loyalty out of them, and when the person finally says I need to be with my baby, the machine prints a nice statement and moves on to the next one.
Leavitt’s statement was graceful. She said all the right things. She thanked the president. She talked about her children. That’s what you do when you leave. You don’t burn the bridge because the bridge is the only thing keeping you employable in this town.
But don’t confuse the statement with the story. The story