Karoline Leavitt will tell her last lie from the White House podium this month. Trump says she's leaving

President Donald Trump announced Wednesday afternoon that White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt will leave her post at the end of August, closing a tenure in which the administration’s youngest-ever chief spokesperson became one of its most aggressive defenders — including when the facts did not support what she was saying and when transgender Americans were the target.Trump announced Leavitt’s departure on Truth Social shortly after 3:30 p.m., saying the 28-year-old wanted to spend more time with her two young children. She recently returned from maternity leave after giving birth to her second child in May. Leavitt is married to Nicholas Riccio, a 60-year-old New Hampshire real estate developer—the couple, who have a 32-year age gap, married in January 2025. Trump said Leavitt would remain “one of my top outside advisors” as Republicans approach the midterm elections. He has not named her successor.Related: Trump’s new White House Press Secretary targets transgender people in first briefing“Karoline has been one of the best White House Press Secretaries in the History of the Office,” Trump wrote.Independent fact-checkers documented a considerably less flattering record.At Leavitt’s first briefing in January 2025, she promised to “provide the truth” from the podium. She then claimed the Biden administration had been preparing to spend $50 million on condoms in Gaza, for which the administration provided no evidence. PolitiFact rated the claim false.In March, Leavitt declared that “tariffs are a tax cut for the American people.” PolitiFact rated that false, noting tariffs are taxes imposed on imported goods, and their costs can be passed along to U.S. consumers. Two months later, the organization again rated Leavitt false after she claimed Trump’s tax and spending legislation “does not add to the deficit.”Leavitt also became a reliable public voice for an administration carrying out a sweeping assault on trans rights.From her