Karoline Leavitt’s Debut Showcases New Spirit of Openness at Trump’s White House

The Donald Trump revolution gained renewed momentum this week when 27-year-old Karoline Leavitt made her debut as the youngest White House press secretary in history.I loved the clarity and directness of her comment about the drones in New Jersey. For weeks, no one in the Joe Biden administration could explain the drone phenomena. The first reaction was the drones didn’t exist. When the former governors of New Jersey and Maryland said they had seen multiple drones over their homes, the Biden administration changed course. Officials acknowledged the drones — but still failed to explain them. The ordeal echoed the muddled Biden administration response to the Chinese spy balloon that sailed across the country in 2023. The administration initially kept it secret until an amateur photographer in Montana captured an image and sent it to the press.Ms. Leavitt’s statement was a breath of fresh air. In her first meeting with the White House Press Corps, she announced: “After research and study, the drones that were flying over New Jersey in large numbers were authorized to be flown by the FAA for research and various other reasons. Many of these drones were also hobbyists, recreational and private individuals that enjoy flying drones. In time, it got worse due to curiosity. This was not the enemy.”Even more than her clarity and candor, I appreciated the scale of change Ms. Leavitt brought to White House press conference attendance rules. Ms. Leavitt did something I have advocated for years. She broke up the club of jaded, cynical, entitled, leftwing propaganda journalists who have dominated such press conferences for years. Ms. Leavitt announced: “This White House believes strongly in the First Amendment. It’s why our team will work diligently to restore the press passes of the 440 journalists whose passes were wrongly revoked by the previous administration.”However, even bolder than returning the 440 journalists exiled by the Biden administration, she also said they would open briefings to “new-media voices,” and encouraged such journalists to apply for credentials. This was an extraordinarily important announcement.It indicated that the Trump White House will be the most open in history. This fits in with his pattern of randomly and informally chatting with reporters. He has probably spent more time answering reporters in the first two weeks of his second term than Mr. Biden did in four years. Expanding the pool of reporters encourages more questions, different types of thinking, and more sources of information.Expanding admittance beyond traditional news outlets to include, “independent journalists, podcasters, social media influencers, and content creators” reflects her understanding of an emerging reality – a great deal of news is received by Americans through nontraditional sources. Trump proved he understood this on the campaign trail. His three-hour interview on the Joe Rogan podcast got nearly 40 million views on YouTube in three days. That is more than double the average viewership of the 2024 World Series. In effect, Ms. Leavitt is the first press secretary to realize that the American people should be the focus of White House press conferences — not the traditional establishment press.Finally, the straightforward honesty about the New Jersey drones and the eagerness to communicate with new media was an important message to younger Americans. It further cemented Trump’s commitment to focus on their future. Ms. Leavitt’s performance in her first White House briefing strengthened and reinforced this commitment. After all, the President has committed to make America great again for everyone. For many young Americans, though, he is making America great for the first time in their adult lives. The second Trump term continues to be remarkable. It is no wonder his approval rating is so high.

Karoline Leavitt’s Debut Showcases New Spirit of Openness at Trump’s White House

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