It didn’t take long for people to theorize about why Karoline Leavitt is leaving the White House after less than two years as the press secretary. She didn’t leave after she was trolled by Saturday Night Life countless times. She didn’t leave after there was an alleged gunman at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. And when she announced she was pregnant with her second child, she maintained that she would stay on in her coveted role with Donald Trump.
So when Trump announced her impending exit and she followed it up with a statement of her own, the wheels began to turn. And now, there are reports that Leavitt was driven to resign after Trump bombarded her with calls to return to work while she was on her short maternity leave. And it’s a reason that plenty of people can get behind.
Donald Trump allegedly bombarded Karoline Leavitt on maternity leave to come back to the White House.
According to CNN’s Alayna Treene, an unnamed source said that Trump repeatedly called Leavitt while she was on maternity leave after the May 2026 birth of her daughter.
“As for the reasoning for her departure, both the president and Leavitt, who did post her own lengthy statement on social media, said it was because of her family. She did give birth to a daughter…She only took about a month of maternity leave before returning,” Treene said. “And I’ll tell you, I have been speaking with some of my sources. When she was on maternity leave, the president, even then, was still frequently calling her and at times was asking when she was going to come back. So I think that just highlights the demanding role of press secretary for her to juggle with her two young children.”
During Leavitt’s maternity leave, multiple White House officials filled in for her during press briefings. However, an official replacement for her time away was never named. Maybe that’s because Trump had held out hope that she would return sooner than anyone expected.
Karoline Leavitt’s statement about leaving mentions her family.
In Leavitt’s statement on Instagram, she cited her family as a reason for her desire to leave her role in the White House and as one of Trump’s right-hand people.
“The truth is since returning to the White House after the birth of my daughter, I have felt in my heart that I cannot be the best mom my two young children deserve while devoting the constant time, energy, and attention required of the White House Press Secretary and that is why I have ultimately made the bittersweet decision to depart the White House and embark on a new chapter in my life,” Leavitt wrote.
Critics commented to say they believe Leavitt made the decision to leave after she found out she was on the decoy plane during the June 2026 NATO summit in Turkey involving an alleged threat on Trump’s life. But she has not addressed that theory.
Her maternity leave was noticeably shorter than what some expected.
Neither Trump nor Leavitt confirmed that Trump repeatedly called Leavitt while she was on maternity leave. However, it is pretty suspect that she was out for around a month, per Treene on CNN. That’s short by anyone’s standards, let alone for a high-ranking role in the White House. She might have been out for longer, however, as PBS reported that she returned to office in June 2026. Still, that’s not a long maternity leave. And now, you have to wonder if its length had anything to do with Trump’s expectations of Leavitt.
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