By Steve Holland
WEST PALM BEACH, Florida (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump reached into his inner circle on Friday and chose his transition spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, as his White House press secretary, putting a 27-year-old firebrand in position to aggressively defend him.
Leavitt has endeared herself to Trump by her ardent defense of him in news interviews and her take-no-prisoners style, Trump advisers said.
The job of the White House press secretary typically is to help inform the American people about presidential activities without betraying the confidence of the boss.
"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," Trump said in a statement.
The challenge for Leavitt will be to impart reliable information and gain credibility with reporters - while maintaining strong loyalty to Trump.
Leavitt will be the youngest person to ever hold the title of White House press secretary. Ron Ziegler was the previous youngest press secretary at age 29 when President Richard Nixon gave him the position in 1969.
A New Hampshire native, Leavitt was an assistant press secretary during the latter part of Trump's first term from 2017 to 2021.
When Trump was defeated by Democrat Joe Biden in 2020, Leavitt became communications director for Republican U.S. Representative Elise Stefanik, who has been tapped by Trump as his U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
Leavitt ran for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives from New Hampshire in 2022, winning the Republican primary. She lost the general election to Democrat Chris Pappas, but the experience appeared to give her valuable experience at public speaking.
She joined Trump's 2024 campaign and has been the chief spokesperson for the president-elect's transition team.
Biden has had two press secretaries over four years: Jen Psaki and Karine Jean-Pierre.
Trump, a close observer of those who defend him and whether they are tough enough, had four press secretaries during his 2017-2021 term: Sean Spicer, Sarah Sanders, Stephanie Grisham and Kayleigh McEnany.Spicer ran afoul of the White House press corps at his first appearance in January 2017 with the false claim that the crowd gathered in Washington for Trump's inauguration was “the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period, both in person and around the globe.”
Photographic proof showed otherwise and the uproar continued for days. Spicer eventually lost Trump's confidence and the president switched to Sanders, who got praise from him for her parrying with the press corps. She is now the Republican governor of Arkansas.
After Sanders left, Trump turned to Grisham, who never held a briefing, which she said was at Trump's direction. She eventually went back to work for Trump's wife, then-first lady Melania Trump. Grisham resigned after the events of Jan. 6, 2021, and is now a sharp Trump critic.
Trump's last chief spokesperson at the White House was McEnany, who sparred with reporters during the pandemic year of 2020 and is now an on-air personality at Fox News.