Steve Bannon, the right-wing podcaster and former adviser to President Donald Trump during his first term, made a bold prediction for Politico about the future of the current White House press secretary.
“After she’s spokesman for a year or two, I think she’s going to get a Cabinet position. Maybe chief of staff,” Bannon told correspondent Adam Wren for his extensive profile on Leavitt.
Wren added that Leavitt was "open to the idea but has said she’s not qualified to be chief," according to a source "familiar with her thinking."
At 27, Leavitt is the youngest press secretary to ever hold court in the White House briefing room. Before that, "she was a 23-year-old MAGA diehard staging a longshot congressional campaign" for New Hampshire's first congressional district in 2022.
Leavitt lost by eight percentage points, according to Wren, and reflected on the race by saying, “This was the best experience I could ever have had, 25 years old, like I can’t wait for what’s next.”
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It's Leavitt's "self-conceived grit that led her from the White House mailroom to this office in Upper Press," and could take her further, Wren postulated.
The youngest ever chief of staff, known as "White House Appointments Secretary" in 1965, was 28-year-old James Jones under President Lyndon Johnson. Once the title was officially changed to "Chief of Staff," 34-year-old Dick Cheney served in the position for President Gerald Ford.
For now, President Donald Trump views Leavitt as a loyal ally, and her future remains bright.
Wren wrote, "Today, whenever her campaign comes up in conversation, Trump always says the same thing to Leavitt about her loss that November, according to two people who have heard or been briefed on the remarks: 'They cheated you out of it,' the president tells her. 'I’m so glad they cheated you out of the election, because now you’re with me.'"
Read the Politico article here.