Karoline Leavitt isn’t going anywhere, according to Lara Trump.
The president’s daughter-in-law insinuated on Fox News that the White House press secretary’s maternity leave would be brief—just days after Leavitt, 28, announced she and her husband, Nicholas Riccio, 60, are expecting a baby girl in the new year.
“I’ve seen some stories out there…people saying ‘whose next in line,’” Lara Trump, 43, told Fox & Friends Weekend host Lisa Boothe on Saturday morning.
“Nobody’s next in line, it’s Karoline, she can do everything,” she added.
Lara Trump pointed out that Leavitt gave birth to her first child, Niko, in July 2024 and remained active throughout much of Donald Trump’s third presidential campaign.
“She was pregnant, delivered her son Nico, and then was back to work within a couple of days on television fighting to ensure President Trump got elected,” Lara Trump said.
“We’re all going to be watching as Karoline Leavitt absolutely schools the fake news media while she’s probably 8 and 9 months pregnant.”
Leavitt and Riccio, a real estate developer, announced their second pregnancy on Fox News on Dec. 26. She is due in May 2026.
“My husband and I are thrilled to grow our family and can’t wait to watch our son become a big brother,” Leavitt said. “My heart is overflowing with gratitude to God for the blessing of motherhood, which I truly believe is the closest thing to Heaven on Earth.”
The former New Hampshire congressional candidate later wrote in an Instagram post that she was “extremely grateful” to Trump and Chief of Staff Susie Wiles for their support, “and for fostering a pro-family environment in the White House.”
The post included images of Leavitt rubbing her belly, an ultrasound placed next to a onesie reading “Baby Sis,” and her son Niko holding a teddy bear that says “I’m the big brother.”
“I am so excited to be a girl mom!” Leavitt wrote.
In a 2024 interview with the right-wing outlet The Conservateur, Leavitt recalled returning to Trump’s campaign just four days after giving birth to her son, Nikko, following the then-candidate’s near-assassination at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“‘I looked at my husband and said, ‘Looks like I’m going back to work,’” she told the outlet.
Leavitt, the youngest press secretary in U.S. history, now breaks another barrier as the first publicly pregnant woman to hold the role.
Her family life has drawn scrutiny before. Leavitt has openly discussed the 32-year age gap between herself and Riccio, whom she began dating in 2022 while running for Congress in New Hampshire.
“It’s definitely a challenging conversation to have at first,” she said on Miranda Devine’s Pod Force One podcast of telling her parents about Riccio.
“Once they got to know him and saw who he is as a man and his character and how much he adores me, I think it became quite easy for them, and now we’re all friends.”
Riccio also hails from New Hampshire, where he battled bouts of financial insecurity to become a major player in Hampton Beach’s real estate scene.
Last month, Leavitt’s family made headlines after Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained the mother of her nephew while she was driving to pick up the 11-year-old from school.
Brazilian national Bruna Ferreira’s attorney has alleged the detention was targeted, noting that few people outside the Leavitt family knew her school pickup schedule. Leavitt has not publicly addressed the incident.
Following weeks of public outcry, 33-year-old Ferreira was released on bail. She later told CNN’s Erin Burnett that her message to Leavitt was: “You‘re a mother. You are a mother now, and you should know. How would you feel if you were in my shoes, you know? How would you feel if somebody did this to you?”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
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