Former White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt joins Fox News as on-air contributor
Former White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt is joining Fox News Channel as an on-air contributor starting Nov. 1, returning a Trump administration veteran to the network’s lineup.
FOX News Media CEO Suzanne Scott announced the hire on Monday, confirming that the 29-year-old will appear across the Fox News platforms with commentary drawn from her time in the White House and on the campaign trail.
Fox News reported that Leavitt, who served as the 36th White House press secretary from January 2025 until August 2026, becomes an official member of the FOX News Media team after stepping away from the podium.
Scott framed the move around experience, not celebrity. She pointed to Leavitt’s direct work inside the administration and on the presidential campaign as the reason viewers will get sharper insight.
Scott said:
"Karoline’s firsthand experience in the White House and on the presidential campaign trail gives her a distinct understanding of today’s political landscape. We look forward to her providing our audience with authentic and sharp insight across all FOX News Media platforms,"
Leavitt answered with gratitude and a promise to keep the same tone that marked her briefings.
Leavitt said:
"I am grateful for the opportunity to continue appearing on Fox News Channel as an official member of the extraordinary team at FOX News Media. I look forward to bringing my unique perspective from my experience as White House press secretary, along with the same energy and candor that defined my tenure, to Fox’s millions of viewers across their many platforms."
From Fox intern to the Brady Briefing Room
Leavitt’s path back to the network started early. She interned at Fox News during the 2016 presidential election, then graduated from Saint Anselm College in 2019 with a degree in politics and communication.
She later worked as a presidential writer and assistant press secretary in President Donald Trump’s first administration. She also served as communications director for then-House Republican Conference Chair Rep. Elise Stefanik and ran as a Republican for Congress in New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District in 2022.
Before joining Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, she was a spokesperson for MAGA Inc. Those roles put her in the middle of the messaging fights that still define national politics, including coverage of Trump administration legal battles that keep landing in court.
In January 2025 she became the youngest White House press secretary in history. For roughly a year and a half she regularly faced the White House press corps in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room and spoke for the administration on domestic and foreign policy.
Fox described her as an unwavering messenger of the president’s agenda. That reputation followed her out the door when she left the post in August.
A bittersweet exit for family reasons
Leavitt confirmed her departure in a lengthy post on X in August. She called it a “bittersweet decision” after concluding she could not balance the demands of the press secretary job with being the mother she wants to be to her two young children.
She lives in New Hampshire with her husband, Nick, and those two children. The family focus was the reason she gave for leaving one of the most visible jobs in American government.
White House personnel moves continue to draw close attention from the same audience that tracks other staff controversies, including cases where a Trump teleprompter operator faced unpaid leave over a betting scheme.
Leavitt’s exit was different. It was framed as a personal trade-off, not a scandal. She left the podium, kept her standing with the administration’s base, and quickly found a new platform.
Nov. 1 start puts her back on air
The contributor role begins Nov. 1. Scott’s announcement cast Leavitt as a full member of the FOX News Media team who will deliver commentary across the lineup rather than a one-off guest.
That fits a network that still drives large conservative audiences and regularly breaks political video, including a recent clip in which Roy Cooper would not reject a socialist platform in footage obtained by Fox News.
Leavitt already knows the building. The 2016 internship, the campaign work, and the White House briefings give her a clean through-line from entry-level media to the administration’s chief spokeswoman and now back to the airwaves.
Viewers who follow Fox personalities will recognize the lane. The network’s hosts and contributors remain central to daily political argument, even when internal fights erupt, such as when Christian conservatives unloaded on a Fox News host over a vulgar on-air response.
Leavitt’s stated aim is simpler: bring the same energy and candor from the briefing room to a wider audience. She is not returning as a staffer taking questions under the lights in Washington. She is returning as a commentator who already lived the job.
Other Trump White House staffing stories have carried heavier consequences, including a staffer fined $172,000 and banned from prediction markets. Leavitt’s transition is the opposite story, an orderly exit for family reasons and a fast landing at a familiar network.
For a press secretary who spent her tenure defending the president’s record in real time, the next chapter is straightforward. She leaves the daily grind of the briefing room, keeps the microphone, and speaks on her own schedule to the viewers who already watched her do the job.