Q&A with Donald Trump’s press secretary pick, Karoline Leavitt

HAMPTON, N.H. — President-elect Donald Trump has tapped New Hampshire Seacoast’s own Karoline Leavitt as his White House press secretary.
At 27 years old, Leavitt will be the youngest White House press secretary ever, responsible for taking on questions from reporters and communicating Trump’s message to the world. She has been the Trump campaign’s national press secretary for the past year.
“Karoline is smart, tough, and has proven to be a highly effective communicator,” Trump said in a press release on Nov. 15. “I have the utmost confidence she will excel at the podium, and help deliver our message to the American People as we, Make America Great Again.”
Leavitt interned at the White House during Trump’s first administration and joined his team after graduating from Saint Anselm College in 2019 with a bachelor of arts degree in politics and communication. At the White House, Leavitt worked as a presidential writer and assistant press secretary under Kayleigh McEnany.
Neil Levesque, the director of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College, and a mentor for Leavitt when she was in college there, said she’s a “great fit” for the role.
Sign-up for Your Vote: Text with the USA TODAY elections team.
“She was a fantastic student, very smart, very capable and very optimistic,” Levesque said. “Certainly there’s a lot of focus on her age, but the truth is that I think the most remarkable part about this is that she’s really that good. She’s just very talented in answering questions and communicating the president-elect’s message.”
When living in Hampton in 2022, Leavitt ran for Congress in New Hampshire’s First Congressional District. She won the primary, running as an unabashedly pro-Trump Republican, but lost to incumbent Democrat Rep. Chris Pappas. Leavitt also worked as a spokeswoman for Republican and close Trump ally Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, who has been tapped for his ambassador to the United Nations. 
Leavitt still lives on the Seacoast with her husband and young baby.
Seacoastonline, part of the USA TODAY Network, spoke to Leavitt on Nov. 22 about how she got into politics, being selected for press secretary, and how she plans on approaching one of the most visible roles in a presidential administration. 
Below is a transcript of that conversation that has been lightly edited for clarity.
What are your New Hampshire ties?
I grew up in Atkinson and went to Atkinson Academy Elementary, Timberlane Regional Middle School, and then I went to Central Catholic High School in Lawrence, Mass. And then I moved to Hampton, and I live on the Seacoast still.
When did you first gain an interest in politics?
My interest in politics started, really when I went to St. Anselm College. You know, I was always enthralled with the news and what was happening around the world. I read the newspapers growing up as a kid. My mom has home videos of me pretending to be a reporter when I was little. But it really came when I went to St. Anselm. I went there on a softball scholarship but quickly learned politics was the new game that I wanted to play, and St. Anselm offers a wealth of opportunities for students who are interested in news media and politics. So, I just took advantage of every opportunity I could and started the St. Anselm College Broadcasting Club, I worked part-time at WMUR-TV, and I volunteered on a couple of campaigns, and then realized that this is, you know, what I wanted to do with the rest of my career.
Your time on campus coincided with the beginning of Trump’s era in politics. Did Trump himself bring you into politics?
I was interested in it my whole life. But certainly President Trump, running in 2016 as an outsider and as a pro-business candidate, growing up in a small business and his America first message really resonated with me. In fact, I wrote an op-ed in a school newspaper when I was a student, and the title of it was, ‘Why Donald Trump just keeps on winning.’ I think that title of that op-ed is just as relevant today as it was then.
Were you expecting to be selected for press secretary? What went through your head when that happened?
Yeah, I was, I would say it didn’t come as a huge surprise. It was an honor, and I had been doing the job, you know, on the campaign for the past year and a half.
How are you planning on approaching the job? Is there anything you want to change?
No, it’s, you know, my goal to be the most effective messenger possible on behalf of President Trump and relaying his message to the American people. He just received a resounding mandate from the American people to implement the policies he campaigned on. And so I’m incredibly excited to speak on behalf of a president who has a mandate to deliver on the promises that he made and create real change for people that are currently hurting in our country.
You’re the youngest ever press secretary – what do you think being a member of Gen Z brings to the table?
I hope that it serves as an inspiration to other young people to just take advantage of every opportunity and work very hard.
This is one of the most public positions in a presidential administration – are you nervous? How do you handle that type of pressure?
I feel excited and prepared.
The press and Trump seem to have an adversarial relationship, how do you approach being the intermediary between that?
Well, it’s certainly something that I’m used to doing, having worked in this world for quite some time now, and speaking on behalf of the president on his campaign, and, you know, understanding that there is a hostile press that covers the president dishonestly, and they need to be held accountable for that. But I think if this election taught us anything, it’s that the American people are no longer listening to the news media, the legacy news media, and are getting their news and opinions from outside voices like podcasters and its social influencers, and President Trump did an excellent job on the campaign of engaging with those outside voices.
Many of your processors in the role have gone on either to be high-profile Trump supporters like Kayleigh McEnany and Sarah Sanders to Trump critics like Stephanie Grisham. And Sean Spicer went on “Dancing with the Stars.” Who do you view as a role model among your predecessors?
They are all role models, and I greatly look forward to talking to them before I take the podium, and taking their advice.
Trump had four press secretaries during his first four years in office – do you think you will last?
We’ll take it day by day.