Karoline Leavitt, the current White House press secretary under President Donald Trump, jokingly suggested her role was giving her post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on Monday, while also bemoaning several vacations that have been disrupted by her job.
The youngest person to ever hold the job at only 28 years old, Leavitt has distinguished herself as press secretary for her persistent loyalty to Trump and her frequent clashes with reporters over unflattering questions about him. In recent weeks, for example, she deflected questions about Trump's Truth Social post calling for Democratic lawmakers to face the death penalty and suggested that reporters ought to feel grateful for his honesty after he called a female journalist "piggy" when she pressed him about the release of files related to Jeffrey Epstein.
In an interview with the Daily Mail published Monday, Leavitt suggested, jokingly, that she was developing PTSD due to the job. As opposed to any of the unpleasant clashes with reporters causing this, she instead claimed that it was because of her grueling schedule preventing her from making and keeping plans.
“Honestly, I have PTSD about making plans, so I just don't,” Leavitt said. “It's very difficult to make plans in this job.”
Additionally, she claimed that this hectic professional schedule forced her to cancel at least three planned vacations with her husband, 60-year-old real estate developer Nicholas Riccio.
“My husband and I had three different mini weekend getaway vacations this summer. All three got canceled due to foreign policy events,” Leavitt explained. “We just roll with it. If there's a night where I happen to become free, then we take full advantage of that as a family.”
In the face of the recent media firestorm surrounding Trump's accusation that several Democratic lawmakers engaged in seditious behavior for reminding U.S. military officers that they can defy unlawful orders, Leavitt deflected on the president's behalf and accused the lawmakers of "violent rhetoric."
“To suggest and encourage that active duty service members defy the chain of command is a very dangerous thing for sitting members of Congress to do,” Leavitt said. “And they should be held accountable, and that’s what the president wants to see.”
