Karoline Leavitt landed a White House internship as a college student during President Donald Trump‘s first term. In his second term, she serves as the youngest-ever White House press secretary.
A former college athlete who spent her summers scooping ice cream in New Hampshire, Leavitt, 28, quickly rose through the ranks of Republican politics through communications jobs with former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik.
During her tenure as the 2024 Trump campaign‘s national press secretary, she traveled the country while pregnant and returned to work four days after giving birth to her son.
Leavitt has also acknowledged her “atypical love story” with husband Nicholas Riccio, a 60-year-old real-estate developer. The couple is now expecting their second child.
Here’s what to know about Trump’s White House press secretary.
The White House Press Office did not respond to a request for comment.
Karoline Leavitt grew up in Atkinson, New Hampshire, and went to a Catholic high school.
Karoline Leavitt.Charles Krupa/AP
Leavitt’s parents owned an ice cream stand where she worked during the summers.
She attended Central Catholic High School in Lawrence, Massachusetts.
“Having a Catholic education really formed who I am,” she said on an episode of The Catholic Current podcast in 2021.
She continued, “It taught me discipline, it brought me closer in my own relationship with God, and it also taught me the importance of public service and giving back to your community.”
She graduated from Saint Anselm College in 2019 with a degree in politics and communication.
Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire.Michael Casey/AP
Leavitt was admitted to Saint Anselm College on a softball scholarship and played as an outfielder on the women’s softball team, the Saint Anselm Hawks.
Leavitt’s extra-curricular activities included founding the Saint Anselm Broadcasting Club, volunteering at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics, and writing articles for the college newspaper, The Saint Anselm Crier, defending Trump’s travel ban and criticizing the “liberal media.” She also spent a semester studying abroad at John Cabot University in Rome.
In 2018, she interned at the White House during Trump’s first presidency as a presidential writer in the White House Office of Presidential Correspondence.
She was the first member of her family to earn an undergraduate degree.
