Karoline Leavitt's face says it all as she breaks cover after her shock resignation

Karoline Leavitt cut an exhausted figure alongside Donald Trump a day after announcing she is quitting the White House at the end of the month, a decision that stunned Washington. 

The 28-year-old press secretary was at the President's side on Friday as he travelled to New York to speak at a police academy.  

She stood and watched as Trump addressed reporters at Joint Base Andrews before the pair boarded Air Force One. 

Leavitt held her poker face as the press pack jostled around her boss. But she glanced back down toward the photographers as she climbed the stairs to the aircraft, her expression appearing to betray a flicker of regret.  

Leavitt announced on Thursday that she was leaving the White House to devote more time to her young family, a decision understood to have frustrated Trump, who had begged her to stay. 

She is among the President's closest confidantes and had been expected to play a central role in the midterm campaign, with the election less than three months away.  

Leavitt returned from maternity leave only last month after giving birth to her daughter in May, her second child in the space of two years. 

She came back early at the insistence of the President, sources told the Daily Mail. 

No replacement has been announced, although Trump's former lawyer Alina Habba is the odds-on favorite with bookmakers. 

Leavitt admitted it was a 'bittersweet decision' calling it 'the most rewarding yet challenging season of my life, to say the least.' 

'The truth is since returning to the White House after the birth of my daughter, I have felt in my heart that I cannot be the best mom my two young children deserve while devoting the constant time, energy, and attention required of the White House Press Secretary – and that is why I have ultimately made the bittersweet decision to depart the White House and embark on a new chapter in my life,' she wrote on X.

Trump posted on Truth Social it was 'a decision I totally understand and respect', calling Leavitt 'one of the best White House press secretaries in the history of the office.'

The President said Leavitt would remain a 'top outside adviser' and an 'influential voice' at the top of the Republican Party as the White House gears up for crunch midterm elections in November.

Leavitt is known for her tenacity at the podium in the White House briefing room, frequently mirroring the behavior of her boss in attacking 'fake news' journalists and dishing out tongue lashings to any reporter who dares to cross the administration.

She entered Trump's orbit in 2018 during the first administration, first as a presidential writer and then as an assistant White House press secretary.

Leavitt worked as communications director for New York representative Elise Stefanik, a close Trump ally, from 2021 to 2022.

She joined Trump's re-election campaign as a national press secretary in 2024 and was announced as White House Press Secretary on his return to the Oval Office. 

If Leavitt does return to work, she is likely to have her pick of high-profile roles in Republican politics, conservative media and political communications.

Leavitt has two-year-old son Niko and three-month-old daughter Vivi with her real estate developer husband Nicholas Riccio, 60, who she married in January last year.

Leavitt’s resignation comes just two weeks after one of her top deputies Abigail Jackson left the White House for the private sector.