I Hope All Americans Get to One Day Work in a ‘Pro-Family Environment’ Like Karoline Leavitt 

It’s been a hell of a year and two months for Propaganda Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. Since being announced as the youngest-ever press secretary in November 2024, she announced on Friday that she’ll also be the first-ever pregnant press secretary. The irony of the most anti-feminist, anti-women, anti-mother administration in recent memory having a female press secretary who’s cracked not one, but two, glass ceilings, is breaking my brain.

“My husband and I are thrilled to grow our family and can’t wait to watch our son become a big brother,” the 28-year-old—who was featured in a Project 2025 training video—wrote on Instagram, alongside pictures of a sonogram and her standing in front of a Christmas tree proudly displaying her bump.

“I am also extremely grateful to President Trump and our Chief of Staff Susie Wiles for their support, and for fostering a pro-family environment in the White House,” Leavitt continued. Sounds lovely! I hope all Americans can one day live in a country with a government that supports their dreams of having a family without having to sacrifice their careers, paychecks, or recovery. 

I feel like a broken record for all the times I’ve had to write this, but the United States remains the only developed country without federally mandated paid parental leave—which, of course, is the fault of administrations from both parties. In many ways, not fostering a “pro-family environment” in the U.S. is one of the most bipartisan issues! But only one administration has abandoned $10 million worth of birth control, refused to address or answer to the rising infant and maternal mortality in states with abortion bans, or stacked the Supreme Court with enough uber-conservative judges to overturn Roe v. Wade. But again, wow, so very happy for Leavitt!

This is Leavitt’s second kid with her 60-year-old husband, whom she met in 2022 when she was a 25-year-old congressional candidate in New Hampshire. She gave birth to a baby boy in July 2024 and has bragged talked about how she returned to work (as the Trump campaign’s spokesperson) four days later because Trump got shot in Butler, Pennsylvania, and she felt like “the least I could do is get back to work quickly.”

And it doesn’t sound like Leavitt will taking much of a recovery this time either. On Saturday, Lara Trump—who, I have no idea what she does besides try to sing and be Trump’s daughter-in-law—went on Fox & Friends to say that Leavitt “can do everything” and there are no plans to replace her after she gives birth.

“She did this, by the way, during the Trump campaign,” Lara said of Leavitt’s anti-maternity-leave lore. “We’re all going to be watching as Karoline Leavitt absolutely schools the fake news media while she’s probably 8 and 9 months pregnant.” Awesome!

If Leavitt chooses not to take maternity leave, then…that’s her choice. But it’s a choice a lot of parents in the U.S. don’t have…because, again, the U.S. doesn’t have federally mandated parental leave. I repeat this because it is so fucking crazy to me.

If this were a true pro-family administration, Trump and Wiles would encourage Leavitt to take maternity leave as a model to the rest of the country about how important it is for parents to bond with their baby and for a new mom to get the time she needs to rest and recover after pushing a seven-pound oval bowling ball out of their vagina.

Alas, I expect nothing but kicked dirt from an administration that used its war on “DEI” to freeze funding for family planning providers and shut down one of the CDC’s sole programs dedicated to improving infant and maternal mortality. But maybe Leavitt can crack another glass ceiling and be the first press secretary to potty train her toddler on the podium or something.

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