White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, 27, doesn’t just have a seat at President Donald Trump’s table—she appears to have taken the head chair.
On Monday, the White House released several photos from the Ukraine peace summit, which drew an extraordinary gathering of European leaders to Washington, D.C. Among them were key members of Trump’s inner circle — including Leavitt, who was photographed seated in a gold armchair in front of the Oval Office fireplace.
That particular seat, regardless of its changing style over decades, has long carried symbolic weight. Positioned opposite a matching chair, it’s traditionally where sitting U.S. presidents host foreign dignitaries, ambassadors, and heads of state — from Ronald Reagan to Barack Obama to Trump himself.
📸 Scenes from the Oval Office on an historic day pic.twitter.com/ijs75dayYf
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) August 19, 2025
Now, during high-stakes peace talks, it’s also where Leavitt, a failed congressional candidate, was seen nestled comfortably.
Iconic moments in these chairs include former President Ronald Reagan meeting Soviet defector Oleg Gordievsky in 1987, and former President George W. Bush shaking hands with Rwandan President Paul Kagame in 2008.
Trump had been seated there earlier in the day during his one-on-one with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky—the same setup as their previous, disastrous Oval Office meeting in February.
Yes! 👏 https://t.co/Nyf646AKwL
— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) August 19, 2025
While Leavitt occupied the seat, the president was behind the iconic “Resolute Desk” with a semicircle of Europe’s most powerful leaders arranged in front of him. Behind them, Trump allies—including Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth—were scattered across the room, seated on gold couches or standing along the walls.
Trump, 79, has long favored Leavitt, the youngest press secretary in White House history, recently gushing to Newsmax that she’s “become a star” in her role.
“It’s that face. It’s that brain. It’s those lips, the way they move. They move like she’s a machine gun,” the president said at the time.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
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