{"id":43498,"date":"2026-08-14T04:01:43","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T23:01:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=43498"},"modified":"2026-08-14T04:01:43","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T23:01:43","slug":"what-karoline-leavitts-exit-reveals-about-maga-womanhood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=43498","title":{"rendered":"What Karoline Leavitt\u2019s exit reveals about MAGA womanhood"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"zephr-anchor\">\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\"><em>This story appeared in <\/em>Today, Explained,<em> a daily newsletter that helps you understand the most compelling news and stories of the day. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/today-explained-newsletter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Subscribe here<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Karoline Leavitt, the 28-year-old firebrand who became the nation\u2019s youngest-ever press secretary in 2024, is stepping down to \u201cspend more time with her beautiful young children.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">President Donald Trump announced the news on Wednesday night in <a href=\"https:\/\/truthsocial.com\/@realDonaldTrump\/posts\/117084211457388624\">a Truth Social post<\/a>, adding that Leavitt would remain an adviser and \u201can influential voice within the Republican Party.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">It feels fitting that Leavitt \u2014 whose public persona required her to perform both her job and her role as a wife and mom \u2014 is stepping down to parent. In MAGA\u2019s conception of womanhood, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/policy\/363543\/pronatalism-vance-birth-rates-population-decline-fertility\">there can be no higher calling<\/a>. Not even serving the president.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">For more than two years, however, Leavitt <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theconservateur.com\/features\/wonder-woman-karoline-leavitt-her-life-as-a-new-mom-amp-trumps-spokeswoman\">made a show<\/a> of trying to do both. She returned to work on Trump\u2019s reelection campaign only days after the birth of her first child and regularly shared photos of herself working while holding her son.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Leavitt also welcomed a daughter over the spring, amid what Fox News dubbed a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/white-house-baby-boom-full-bloom-usha-vance-top-trump-aides-announce-pregnancies\">White House \u201cbaby boom.\u201d<\/a> Officials and conservative media quickly turned the new mothers into <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/lifeandstyle\/2026\/may\/08\/karoline-leavitt-katie-miller-pregnancy\">advertisements for the pro-natalist movement<\/a>: Proof that women could, and should, have both careers and children.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Leavitt is still being held up that way, even \u2014 perhaps especially \u2014 as she departs. \u201cShe\u2019s been a role model to millions and millions of young women,\u201d deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/nicksortor\/status\/2087643893038768515\">told Fox News<\/a> on Wednesday. \u201cA mother, a family woman, a press secretary, a patriot.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">The MAGA movement tends to glorify traditional female roles \u2014 wife, mother, homemaker \u2014 while simultaneously (and confusingly) elevating ambitious, career-driven women like Leavitt.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">At first glance, her prominence \u2014 and that of other women in Trump\u2019s administration \u2014 would seem to rebut the charge that the movement is misogynist. In fact, that\u2019s a line of defense that Trump himself <a href=\"https:\/\/rollcall.com\/factbase\/trump\/transcript\/donald-trump-remarks-womens-history-month-white-house-march-26-2025#:~:text=You%20talk%20about,the%20strongest%20women\">has advanced<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">But look a little closer, and you\u2019ll see the structural contradiction at the heart of MAGA femininity: Female power is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/culture\/410239\/kristi-noem-karoline-leavitt-maga-womanhood-femininity\">only legitimate when it\u2019s exercised on behalf of Trump<\/a>, and by women who conform to traditional expectations around gender, marriage, motherhood, and physical appearance.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">To Trump, a female White House correspondent was a \u201cpiggy,\u201d for instance. But a female press secretary who defended the slur was \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/rollcall.com\/factbase\/trump\/transcript\/donald-trump-remarks-womens-history-month-white-house-march-26-2025#:~:text=I%20said%2C%20you%27re%20not%20too%20young%20and%20she%27s%20knocking%20them%20dead.\">knocking them dead<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">A female employee at a Trump golf course was asked to sign an NDA after reporting harassment. But the female attorney who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2023\/11\/30\/trump-golf-club-worker-sexually-harassment-lawsuit-00129307\">allegedly pressured<\/a> her to sign it was, according to Trump, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/rollcall.com\/factbase\/trump\/transcript\/donald-trump-remarks-womens-history-month-white-house-march-26-2025#:~:text=And%20we%20have%20somebody%20else%20who%27s%20like%20a%20rocket%20ship\">a rocket ship<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">A female politician <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/today-explained-newsletter\/476884\/kristi-noem-dhs-minneapolis-impeachment\">rose to prominence<\/a> championing the president\u2019s deportation agenda. But to get there, she had to find her \u201cMar-a-Lago face\u201d \u2014 and she was ousted after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/us\/trump-says-he-didnt-sign-off-200-million-border-security-ad-campaign-2026-03-05\/\">showing signs<\/a> of personal ambition. (In fairness, she was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/the-logoff-newsletter-trump\/481753\/kristi-noem-homeland-security-fired-trump-markwayne-mullin\">also very bad at her job<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">It\u2019s a very tricky little tightrope to walk. And lately, that strain has begun to show. While Trump began his second term with an unusually high number of female Cabinet members for a Republican president, women now hold <a href=\"https:\/\/cawp.rutgers.edu\/federal-executive-high-level-presidential-appointments\">only four<\/a> of 23 Cabinet or Cabinet-level positions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Trump\u2019s support <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/politics\/articles\/young-women-support-trump-slips-102119564.html\">is also down<\/a> among young women. In Congress, a bloc of prominent conservative female lawmakers recently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/05\/18\/opinion\/maga-women-congress-metoo.html\">broke from their party<\/a> to censure Republicans accused of misconduct. Now, the MAGA movement is losing one of its fiercest female proxies in Leavitt.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Even at the height of her powers, however, Leavitt never really got her due. The luxurious office traditionally reserved for the White House press secretary <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2025\/04\/21\/us\/politics\/white-house-west-wing-offices-trump.html\">instead went<\/a> to another White House staffer. A dude.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\"><strong>\u27a8 Meet the latest and greatest exercise cult. <\/strong>It\u2019s called HYROX \u2014 yes, in all caps \u2014 and it\u2019s an eight-round agility and strength competition. Participants spend thousands of dollars on training, registration, and travel for these events, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/culture\/497987\/what-is-hyrox-training-gym-exercises\">which tend to \u201csubsume your entire existence.\u201d<\/a> That\u2019s a very hard no for me, personally\u2026but a lot of very fit and competitive people are apparently<em> into it<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--block-placement _13j8zv41 _13j8zv40 duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<ul class=\"duet--article--unordered-list _10sa9omi uyby7v0 pn04iq1\">\n<li class=\"uyby7v1\"><span class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup\"><strong>Did you know\u2026<\/strong>that the US attempted to assassinate longtime Cuban dictator Fidel Castro <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/2016\/11\/26\/13752514\/us-fidel-castro-assassination\">by poisoning his ice cream<\/a>? And that\u2019s somehow not even the weirdest or most far-fetched Castro assassination scheme. <\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"uyby7v1\"><span class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup\"><strong>Today\u2019s trivia:<\/strong> Who was the first woman to perform hip hop at the White House? (You can find this and other brain puzzles <a href=\"https:\/\/link.vox.com\/click\/6a46cfd46352b082500e86fe\/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cudm94LmNvbS8yMTUyMzIxMi9jcm9zc3dvcmQtcHV6emxlcy1mcmVlLWRhaWx5LXByaW50YWJsZT91ZWlkPWM3Mzg0ZDJhYzRmZDQ0YzcyZDI4OGQ4N2YxZjM5NDlh\/664389def568f1a4620aa3aeC7b08b10b\">in Vox\u2019s daily crossword<\/a>. Look for the answer in tomorrow\u2019s edition.)<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"uyby7v1\"><span class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup\"><strong>Yesterday\u2019s trivia:<\/strong> Yesterday we asked you for the German philosopher who wrote <em>Critique of Practical Reason<\/em>. That would be Immanuel Kant, whose work also arguably <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/summer-movies\/2018\/5\/17\/17343442\/avengers-infinity-war-captain-america-thanos-sequel-moral-dilemma\">inspired one of the core conflicts<\/a> in the <em>Avengers<\/em> films.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This story appeared in Today, Explained, a daily newsletter that helps you understand the most compelling news and stories of the day. Subscribe here. Karoline Leavitt, the 28-year-old firebrand who became the nation\u2019s youngest-ever press secretary in 2024, is stepping down to \u201cspend more time with her beautiful young children.\u201d President Donald Trump announced the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43499,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/platform.vox.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/gettyimages-2286569759.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C10.732984293194%2C100%2C78.534031413613&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}