Karoline Leavitt has raged at CNN for claiming President Donald Trump is weighing major Cabinet changes just weeks before he hits the one-year mark of his second term.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, 28, erupted online at a detailed report by the outlet which said Trump aides are planning for a possible Cabinet turnover.
CNN said that most notably at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Secretary Kristi Noem, 53, and her powerful adviser and rumored lover, Corey Lewandowski, 52, appear increasingly vulnerable.
Beyond DHS, the CNN report also suggested that Energy Secretary Chris Wright, 60, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, 45, could be at risk.
“This story is 100% Fake News,” Leavitt fumed on X, accusing CNN of inventing drama to rescue “dying” ratings. “President Trump could not be happier with his Cabinet.”
But senior administration and DHS officials have been whispering for weeks that “Ice Barbie” Noem may indeed be “not long for this world,” well-placed DHS sources have told the Daily Beast, citing her deepening reliance on Lewandowski, who has clashed with Trump.
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The stress inside DHS has grown more intense amid pressure from Trump’s immigration czar Stephen Miller, 40, to hit the president’s target of 3,000 deportations a day, not helped by a “chaotic” ICE hiring spree described to the Beast as a “s–tshow.”
Another added that Noem and Lewandowski’s leadership style had begun to grate on Trump’s top immigration architects.
The Beast has reached out to DHS for comment.
Aside from at DHS and Energy, where officials have complained Wright had slowed promised Trump-era initiatives, the CNN report said questions have also swirled around Hegseth, 45, following a Pentagon watchdog probe into mishandled classified information, and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, 44, whose Iran briefings frustrated the president over the summer.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, 58, is viewed as a contender for any high-level opening because he will be out of a job on Jan.1, after Democrats swept back to power in the state. The president has described Youngkin as “one of the great governors in our country,” although his allies told CNN he would prefer an economic role over overseeing Trump’s deportation drive at DHS.
As CNN noted, Trump’s advisers had worked hard to avoid the revolving-door chaos of his first term, but several officials now concede that the end of year one is traditionally when presidents decide it’s time to refresh the Cabinet.
Lewandowski’s outsize role inside DHS has become one of the central sources of tension driving discussions about a potential leadership change, according to CNN’s reporting.
As a long-standing Trump ally, the former 2016 campaign chief was brought in as a special government employee, giving him a temporary appointment that still allowed him to exert sweeping authority across the department.
Multiple officials told CNN he directed personnel firings, ordered staff onto administrative leave, and routinely reprimanded senior career officials he believed were slowing down Trump’s deportation agenda.
A DHS spokesperson said in response to CNN’s questions: “Mr. Lewandowski certainly has a reputation of reprimanding officials who impede or slow down the administration and undermine the will of the American people—the American people voted for Donald J. Trump, not a bureaucrat.”
But, CNN reports, Lewandowski’s growing power culminated in the September meeting with Noem and Trump that CNN described as “contentious,” particularly between Lewandowski and the president himself—a notable shift, given Lewandowski has long relied on his personal rapport with Trump to survive internal fights.
CNN also noted that Lewandowski’s longstanding relationship with Noem, dating back to her time as South Dakota governor, has created a kind of dual-leadership dynamic at DHS.
That pairing has fueled speculation inside the White House over whether the two might ultimately depart together, should Trump opt for a broader reset at the department.
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