2026-08-13T04:01:29.209Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/13/politics/karoline-leavitt-leaving-white-house-trump
唐纳德·特朗普几乎不需要任何人来充当他的传声筒。
这位现代史上最聒噪的总统总能把自己的观点传递出去——通过每日铺天盖地的线上发帖、采访以及与记者的激烈争执。
因此，新闻秘书的离职对这位“首席传声者”来说似乎无足轻重。但周三宣布的卡萝琳·莱维特的离职，却是一次重大的个人与政治损失。她留下的职位空缺，将凸显出她作为总统核心智囊团重要成员的角色。
但她远不止是一名发言人。莱维特深谙特朗普的行事风格。她是特朗普第二届任期内攻击华盛顿问责机构的领军人物之一——具体而言，就是华盛顿特区的媒体界。和老板一样，她打破了该职位的固有模式。通过持续不断地与记者“互怼”，她暴露了传统新闻业在社交媒体时代的裂痕。
莱维特周三在社交媒体上表示，自5月1日她的第二个孩子、一名女婴出生以来，她意识到自己无法在投入这份工作所需的“持续时间、精力和注意力”的同时，成为孩子们应得的母亲。特朗普称赞她是自己“最信任的助手之一”，在这位28岁助手离职的消息传出后，他或许是为了缓和自身的损失感，宣布莱维特将继续以外部顾问的身份为他效力。
担任特朗普的新闻秘书绝非易事。在本届政府中，“信息纪律”本身就是一个自相矛盾的说法。没有人，包括特朗普本人，知道总统下一分钟会说什么。他的政策说变就变，会与高级官员乃至自己之前的言论自相矛盾。
而特朗普是媒体操控大师。数十年来，他一边妖魔化记者，一边讨好记者，同时还在利用记者。在打造自己地产大亨和名人品牌的过程中，他享受着20世纪80年代纽约小报反派的角色。他敏锐地察觉到媒体对不断更新的头条新闻的渴求，并将其作为转移注意力的工具。
特朗普对冲突的狂热、对礼仪的蔑视，以及敢于发表惊世骇俗言论的特质，在他的政治崛起与社交媒体爆发式发展恰好重合之际，产生了奇妙的化学反应。他借助这项新技术，将自己火爆的个性注入美国的政治血脉，绕过了前任总统用来传递信息的传统媒体渠道。
所以，或许他根本不需要另一位新闻秘书。
但他很难找到兼具莱维特各项技能的替代者。除了总统本人，她在镜头前讲“让美国再次伟大”口号的流利程度无人能及。她的新闻发布会与其说是为了解释政策或向外国领导人传递加密信息，不如说是在展示特朗普式的反抗姿态。
总统的支持者们都非常喜爱莱维特。她对知名记者的抨击让人想起特朗普首次竞选时的反叛口号。她几乎从不直接回答问题——反而更喜欢攻击那些在特朗普这场“秀”中沦为配角的记者的动机或思维方式。
上个月，莱维特陪同总统出席了白宫记者协会晚宴。这场晚宴原定于4月举行，后因一名枪手试图闯入年度活动而改期。当晚，特朗普全程用恶毒且人身攻击的语言辱骂记者，这将成为她任期的告别隐喻。
同样巧合的是，莱维特宣布辞职之际，正值一场风暴的中心：上月总统在安全恐慌期间秘密乘“空军一号”从土耳其返程时，白宫是否将记者当作诱饵。
莱维特的任期将被铭记为对“媒体在监督总统履职方面发挥着重要作用”这一陈旧观念的毁灭性打击。
她接管了长期由独立记者协会管理的随行记者团制度。她决定哪些记者可以进入总统活动现场、搭乘“空军一号”。她将流媒体平台、本土保守派电台主持人、播客创作者以及“让美国再次伟大”活动的名人纳入常设记者团。
批评人士认为，这是在试图引进会对特朗普网开一面的宣传人员。而他的支持者则为这一举措欢呼，认为这是对他们眼中的自由派精英媒体的一次迟到的稀释。
在这场堪称本届政府蔑视常规媒体的标志性巨大争议中，莱维特在特朗普的指示下，禁止美联社记者参加某些白宫新闻活动，一名该机构的记者也被排除在“空军一号”之外。拥有全美及全球数千家客户的美联社，此前拒绝修改其编辑手册，以配合特朗普将墨西哥湾更名为“美国湾”的行政命令。
与特朗普首届政府媒体团队首创的“另类事实”相比，莱维特的新闻发布会很快就显得有过之而无不及。她在发布会开场时会发表经过高度加工的独白，用夸张的语言赞扬特朗普的成就。这些表现让人想起保守派电视台的黄金档节目——一旦孩子们长大成人，她无疑能在这个领域找到一份收入丰厚的工作。
每一届政府与媒体之间都会产生紧张关系。乔治·W·布什政府团队与记者的关系往往十分紧张。记者与巴拉克·奥巴马总统助手之间的激烈争执，推翻了保守派认为记者们“偏袒民主党”的论调。而乔·拜登总统的新闻办公室尤其敏感。但特朗普前所未有地威胁到了新闻界在共和国内的宪法角色。
民主党众议员詹姆斯·沃金肖周三在CNN的“The Arena”节目中表示，他不怀疑莱维特以家庭为由辞职的诚意。但他补充道：“这是一份艰难的工作。要成为唐纳德·特朗普的发言人，你必须每天刻意否认现实。”这位弗吉尼亚州议员还表示：“我认为她的遗产将是进一步恶化白宫与媒体之间的关系。”
尽管莱维特的新闻发布会是为电视制作的对抗性场面，但在镜头之外，她通常与媒体成员相处得更为融洽。她通常会配合记者的采访请求，而她与特朗普之间的信任纽带意味着，在关键时刻她能与总司令同处一室。这种特权对记者来说至关重要，也为高级发言人建立了可信度。有人担心，莱维特离职后，记者们将更难报道这位行事反复无常、几乎不受制约的总统的决策过程。
除非总统挑选一位已经深入其核心圈子的人接任，否则莱维特的继任者可能缺乏让她成为政府权威声音的那种真实感。大多数白宫都会为最高职位培养一到多名副新闻秘书，但这份工作通常会在几年内让在职者身心俱疲。莱维特缺乏公开的继任计划，这将加剧人们的猜测：特朗普可能会亲自承担起全部职责。
莱维特将永远是特朗普支持者心目中的英雄。而且她的影响力可能会在特朗普第二届政府结束后依然存在，因为白宫团队通常会延续前任的工作方法。未来的总统，无论民主党还是共和党，可能都会不愿主动将权力交还给媒体。
在第二届任期内，特朗普看起来常常像是在运用权力，以确保一切永远不会回到从前。
他曾拥有莱维特这位忠诚且高效的伙伴。
Why Karoline Leavitt might be impossible for Trump to replace
2026-08-13T04:01:29.209Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/13/politics/karoline-leavitt-leaving-white-house-trump
Donald Trump hardly needs anyone else to serve as his mouthpiece.
The most clamorous president in modern history always gets his message out — in a daily riot of online posts, interviews and rancor with reporters.
The departure of a press secretary therefore might seem like a trifle to the messenger in chief. But the exit of Karoline Leavitt, announced Wednesday, represents a significant personal and political loss. The vacuum she’ll leave will emphasize her role as a vital member of the president’s brain trust.
But she is far more than a spokesperson. Leavitt understands the Trump id. She’s been a leader in his second-term assault on Washington institutions of accountability — in this case, the Beltway press. Just like the boss, she broke the mold of her position. And with relentless trolling of reporters, she’s exposed the fractures of traditional journalism in the social media age.
Leavitt said on social media on Wednesday that since the birth of her second child, a daughter, on May 1, she’d realized she couldn’t be the mom her kids deserve while devoting the “constant time, energy, and attention,” her job requires. Trump, perhaps softening the blow to himself of the departure of a 28-year-old he praised as one of his “most trusted aides” announced that Leavitt will continue to serve as an outside adviser.
Being Trump’s press secretary is no easy ride. The term “message discipline” is an oxymoron in this administration. No one, including himself, knows what the president will say from one minute to the next. He changes policy on a dime, contradicting his top officials and himself.
And Trump is a master media manipulator. He’s demonized, flattered and played reporters for decades. He relished the role of 1980s New York tabloid villain as he built his brand as a real estate tycoon and celebrity. He intuits the media’s craving for constantly evolving headlines and uses it as a tool of distraction.
Trump’s zeal for conflict, disdain for etiquette and willingness to say outrageous things forged alchemy when his political ascent coincided with the explosion of social media. He used the new technology to inject his volcanic personality into the nation’s political bloodstream, bypassing the traditional media used as a conduit by his predecessors.
So maybe he doesn’t even need another press secretary.
He’ll struggle to replace Leavitt’s combination of skills. She speaks MAGA more fluently on camera than anyone but the president. Her briefings are less attempts to explain policy or to deliver coded messages to foreign leaders than demonstrations of Trumpian defiance.
The president’s supporters dearly love Leavitt. Her blasts at famous reporters recall the rebel yells of Trump’s first campaign. She rarely answers a question straight — preferring to attack the motives or mindsets of reporters thrust into the role of extras in the Trump show.
Last month, Leavitt sat by the president’s side at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner that was rescheduled after a gunman tried to rush into the annual event in April. That evening, which Trump spent insulting journalists in vicious and personal terms, will now serve as a valedictory metaphor for her tenure.
It’s also somehow fitting that Leavitt announced her resignation in the middle of a storm over whether the White House used reporters on Air Force One as a decoy during the president’s secret flight from Turkey during a security scare last month.
Leavitt’s tenure will be remembered as devastating to the quaint notion that the press has a vital role in holding presidents to account.
Her operation took over control of the pool system long administered by the independent correspondents’ association. She decided who got into presidential events and flew on Air Force One. She added streaming services, local conservative radio hosts, and podcasters and MAGA personalities to the permanent press corps.
Critics saw an attempt to introduce propagandists who’d go soft on Trump. His supporters cheered what they saw as an overdue dilution of what they regard as the liberal elite media.
In one enormous controversy epitomizing the administration’s contempt for regular media, Leavitt — under Trump’s direction — banned the Associated Press from certain White House press events, and an agency reporter was excluded from Air Force One. AP, which has thousands of clients in the US and worldwide, had declined to change its style guide to mirror Trump’s executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America.”
Leavitt’s briefings soon made the “alternative facts” pioneered by Trump’s first-term media team appear tame by comparison. She opened briefings with highly torqued monologues hyperbolically lauding Trump’s achievements. The performances were reminiscent of prime time shows on conservative TV — a world in which she’d surely find a lucrative future once her kids grow up.
Tensions develop between every administration and the media. Relations between President George W. Bush’s team and reporters were often brittle. Acrimony between reporters and President Barack Obama’s aides belied conservative notions that journalists were in the tank. And President Joe Biden’s press shop was especially prickly. But Trump has threatened the constitutional role of the press in the republic as never before.
Democratic Rep. James Walkinshaw said on CNN’s “The Arena” on Wednesday that he didn’t doubt Leavitt’s sincerity in citing family reasons for her departure. But he added: “It’s a tough job. It’s a job where, to be Donald Trump’s spokesman, you have to willfully deny reality on a daily basis.” The Virginia lawmaker added: “I think her legacy will be one of further degrading the relationship between the White House and the press.”
While Leavitt’s briefings are made-for-TV showdowns, she’s often more collegial with media members away from the cameras. She’s usually available to reporters, and her bond of trust with Trump means she’s in the room with the commander in chief at pivotal moments. This privilege is important to journalists and builds credibility for top spokespeople. And there are fears that with Leavitt gone, they will find it even more difficult to report on the decision-making of an erratic and nearly unchecked president.
Unless the president picks a replacement who is already deep in his inner circle, Leavitt’s successor may lack the authenticity that made her an authoritative voice for the administration. Most White Houses groom one or more deputy press secretaries for the top job, which typically grinds down incumbents within a few years. The lack of a visible succession plan for Leavitt will fuel speculation that Trump may just take on the entire task himself.
Leavitt will always be a heroine to Trump’s base. And her influence may outlast the second Trump administration, since West Wing teams often build on the techniques of those who came before. A future president, Democratic or Republican, might balk at voluntarily handing back power to the press.
In his second term, Trump often looks like he’s wielding power to ensure nothing can ever be the same again.
He had a loyal and effective partner in Leavitt.