White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced she is leaving the Trump administration to focus on being a mother.
By all accounts, Leavitt, 28, has had a run most people would envy: the youngest White House press secretary in history
, and a wife and mother of two, all before turning 30. Her example should have made her a fixture on magazine covers, held up as proof that a woman can do and have it all.And yet Leavitt has drawn intense smears, criticism and even open disdain from Democrats and legacy media outlets. The left claims to champion all women, then sneers at conservative ones. That double standard doesn't just hurt Democrats' credibility; it's dehumanizing to women of every political stripe.
Karoline Leavitt's exit announcement draws fire
Even Leavitt's goodbye prompted smears.
"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," Leavitt posted on X.
Two photos accompanied her farewell post. One, taken by Anna Moneymaker in 2025, shows her in a kelly green dress, roughly a year after giving birth to her first child.
The Daily Beast suggested the photo looked too good to be real and speculated Leavitt had altered it with artificial intelligence. The New Republic checked and found it real and untouched.
The left seems fixated on Leavitt's appearance, which has been mocked before in subtle ways. In December, Vanity Fair ran a large photo spread alongside an interview with the White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles. Nearly everyone in it looked unflattering, but Leavitt especially.
One photo was shot close enough to appear to show her lip filler injection sites, which the photographer vehemently defended.
The phrase "Mar-a-Lago face" isn't a compliment, and it's a label that is applied only when the woman in question is conservative.
Democrats and the media have treated former first lady Michelle Obama and first lady Melania Trump so differently, it's stunning. Sure, Obama was mocked for her body type when her husband was president. But every time I see her in the news now, she looks stunning, and the profiles detail her many accomplishments. While Obama was first lady, her face graced dozens of magazine covers, and she has continued to receive public adoration, well after her husband’s tenure ended.
Trump, by contrast, was mocked for producing a documentary about her own life, one that performed better than expected commercially. Like Obama and Leavitt, she has real accomplishments apart from her husband: former model, immigrant, polyglot, mother. I'm always shocked that the first lady, who looks gorgeous and fashionable everywhere she goes, isn't on a new magazine cover every week.
Actually, I’m not shocked, because even this sort of nonpolitical coverage is all about one thing: partisan politics. The double standard has no place for the millions of conservative women and girls who see these women as role models. And it teaches everyone else that accomplishment, intelligence, beauty and work ethic earn praise only when the woman holding them has the "correct" (i.e., liberal) politics.
Leavitt's conservative politics make her Democrats' target
The left feels free to mock Leavitt's appearance because they loathe her conservative politics and values, and her job as Trump's spokeswoman gives them an excuse.
After Leavitt announced she was leaving her job, an author at The New Republic wrote, "So, Leavitt’s photograph isn’t a lie – but you know what is? Everything else she said during her time as fascism’s mouthpiece."
Sen. Adam Schiff, D-California, sneered that Leavitt was leaving “to spend a little more time … with the truth.”
Democrats have smeared Leavitt personally, too, accusing her of lying rather than just disagreeing with her. In October, after Leavitt said the Democratic Party's coalition is "made up of Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens and violent criminals," House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called her "sick."
"She's out of control," Jeffries said. "And I'm not sure whether she's just demented, ignorant, a stone-cold liar or all of the above."
It's fair for the media and political opponents to call out half-truths or outright lies. I won't defend every single thing Leavitt has said. But articulating Trump's agenda and pushing back on what she saw as media bias isn't lying; it's the job she was hired to do. I don't recall the same Democrats calling out former White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre for gaslighting the American people about then-President Joe Biden's poor health, which had been declining for months.
I'm a conservative woman, so I'm not the target audience here. But after all this, I don't understand the hatred toward Leavitt. She spent years as Trump's press secretary, defending his agenda in front of a press corps that often seemed to despise her, all while raising two young children. That's a genuine juggling act, and I'm disappointed it's drawn scorn rather than a celebration of the very things women are told they can have: a career, a family, ambition and confidence.
Apparently those things are worth celebrating only when the woman holding them has the "right" politics.
Nicole Russell is an opinion columnist with USA TODAY. She lives in Texas with her four kids. Sign up for her newsletter, The Right Track, and get it delivered to your inbox.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Karoline Leavitt exposed Democrats' double standard on women | Opinion
