With Karoline Leavitt stepping down as White House press secretary at the end of August, attorney Alina Habba emerged early as a reported frontrunner to replace her, only to shoot the speculation down herself. “The role of Press Secretary is not a role I am considering,” Habba said, ending days of reporting that had named her among the top contenders.
Habba, who joined Trump’s legal team in 2021 and became a prominent public voice during his 2024 hush-money trial, wasn’t the only name floated. White House Communications Director Steven Cheung and Breitbart Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle were also mentioned as potential contenders in early reporting.
Why an Internal Promotion May Be More Likely
With Habba out of the running and the White House in no rush to name a permanent successor, attention has shifted toward Anna Kelly, the current White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary, as a more likely pick. Promoting from within the existing press team would be the more conventional path and wouldn’t require the incoming press secretary to build relationships with the press corps from scratch, an advantage that matters given how compressed the runway to the midterms already is.
What This Says About the Timeline
An administration official has said Trump intends to replace Leavitt but isn’t in any hurry, and a permanent successor may not be named until after November’s midterm elections. That leaves the briefing room without a confirmed long-term face for months, an unusual gap for a role this central to how the administration communicates day to day.
