One of the most worrisome signs coming into Trump's second administration was that he right off named Susie Wiles as Chief of Staff. Wiles is a lot of things, including an unrepentant and cynical supporter of the most corrupt and incompetent president in history, but she is most certainly not incompetent. Indeed, her mastery of the political dark arts is best proven by the almost non-existent turnover within this oil spill of a White House.
That lack of turnover even within this hall of horrors has proven invaluable at the podium of the press room, as Karoline Leavitt has mastered a mix of precocious genius with mean girl petulance in navigating the barrage of scandals in Trump's wake. Leavitt, like Wiles, remains essential to Trump's stability. Unlike Wiles, Leavitt still constitutes a risk, despite her MAGA magnificence, especially headed into the midterms.
Anyone doubting Leavitt's ability and importance need only revisit the roll call: Spicer, Huckabee-Sanders, Grisham the Ghost, and Kayleigh McEnany — that's four in four years, all four with serious weaknesses. Leavitt's already double-tapped them all, despite a devastating dearth of experience starting at just 27 years of age. To that point, Leavitt's primary accomplishments in life included marrying way up to a rich guy 30 years older than her and losing a bid for Congress.
And yet here she still is. Given the past record, one would have given her six months as the over/under, and yet, from Trump's point of view, she's excelled. But is it possible that he will soon regret not going with someone more experienced? Very possible.
As to how she's managed to stick, some of it is as easy to pin as obvious. Wiles's wily ability to handle things behind the scenes gives Karoline a major advantage. There is far less drama than in Trump's previous White House, resulting in fewer back-stabbing leaks for Karoline to navigate. Second, Kay-Mac already set the standard for the "pretty and petty blonde" who has a little too much fun tossing juvenile insults at the most adult of reporters, the ones challenging her, giving MAGA the giggles they crave. And third, the factor most relevant here, things have not gone all that badly from Trump's point of view.
He's rich, free, and alive, all at the same time. What more could a fast-aging, crime-committing Trump as president want? With a GOP Congress, scandals get swatted away as inside jokes. Until the Iranian War, he had almost nothing to worry about — Epstein would get properly buried (he was sure). Relative to what could be, Leavitt's term has been downright languid.
So far.
Keep that third one in mind — things going okay — because that's the one that is subject to change, indeed is changing, and it's now when Leavitt's lack of experience, snippy and snarky demeanor, and utter callousness to American suffering may bite her, and thus him, at the worst possible time.
Because things are not okay, and that plain fact is validated more by the Republicans in the Senate lately, far above our Democrats, who, for all their action, may as well be reading a John Grisham novel from the cheap seats as all this goes by. The GOP, now squarely staring at the midterms, at least notices that the Iranian War is all but unwinnable, pushing gas prices up, which pushes every other price up, bringing the job market down, except for jobs associated with building data centers for Trump's best buddies, an issue more universally hated than the idea of eating a dead bear off the side of the road, or whatever else RFK Jr. has done lately.
As ridiculous as it seems, many Americans don't give a ffff - duck about gifted 747s, but when gas goes to $7.47, look out. Some might turn a blind eye to Epstein, totally in denial, but can't deny that their healthcare got cut while we spend billions a day losing to Iran. Toss all that stuff together, stuff that truly does matter to most Americans, and all of a sudden, Trump is polling at his lowest levels in history. Scandals that once hit with feathers can now flatten, even nine-lived fatcat Donald Trump, who gets more desperate with every breath, consumed as he considers the ramifications of a Democratic Congress.
So now kick it back to Karoline. It is unfair to measure her by age alone. But it's not unfair to note that experience piles up as the years pile on, and especially in a job like hers. Experience can be the difference between holding one's fire, thus refraining from making something worse, all the way to putting a non-issue atop a nuclearized Intercontinental Ballistic Missile. And again, to the extent such mistakes get made, they get made far more often when inexperience mixes with a rapidly devolving political world, one in which even Fox News seems mildly upset.
Leavitt has already made two major unforced errors that really highlight the dangers ahead. Just a few weeks ago she made the single most tone deaf and hypocritical comment, appropo of nothing, noting something about Gen Z being lazy and having silver spoons in their mouths, seemingly unaware of the fact that she is: A) Gen Z, B) Married to an old rich guy, C) Got a job from a rich guy who won't shut up about her lips, probably only to keep him from commenting about the rest of her body, and D) she takes time off to have the babies her sister Gen Zers cannot afford. Now, that was bad enough when self-limited to mere hypocrisy. Imagine a similar blind spot rearing its ugly head again as "affordability" and healthcare become center stage starting this September, issues impacting every generation.
GOP MAGA supporters are used to Trump not caring. They assume he's too busy making America great to notice that they're actually not that great.
But even Republicans will notice the entitled podiumcaster insisting that things actually are great, and if not, it's someone else's lazy fault. What happens when she faces pressure due to questions with no easy answer, like, "How can we justify cuts from DOGE and healthcare while still spending billions a day in Iran months after Trump assured us we won the war?" (Those will only get more intense as the war becomes increasingly stagnant.)
She's let herself become the face of the Trump administration — and doesn't have the experience to avoid taking the fall when things get bad.
Just one or two tone deaf defensive errors of the Gen-Z variety and suddenly Leavitt has the entire administration in damage control over suddenly seeming even less in tune with non-billionaire voters. She is more than capable, given that she already gives off a combination of entitlement and obliviousness as unmistakable as potentially lethal.
Speaking of obliviousness, Leavitt's attitude has also arisen when criticizing judges that happen to simply rule against the administration, as if simply doing their job is an affront to all things fascist. Such instances transition Karoline to a Karen at faster-than-light levels. Now imagine Leavitt having to deal with that Republican Senate soon to be back in town, trying to do their jobs while also attempting to repair the administration's reputation for doing absolutely nothing to aid Americans through this difficult period. What happens when friends in Congress start to push back a bit?
It is one thing to throw punches at judicial pillows. It's quite another to address criticism from Congress, criticism that will be coming faster and more cutting as November looms with guys like Paxton polling behind Talarico in Texas of all places. Many in Congress will have almost no choice but to lob some shots back at the White House. Voters are angry, and perhaps even some Republicans expect someone to sound like they at least care.
Karoline has some strengths, but Karoline sounding caringis not one of them. In her earnest effort to protect her president, she becomes a major risk of suddenly becoming the face of a White House unresponsive to even the most sincere concerns, making a bad situation much, much worse in just one afternoon — a rookie mistake made in frustration that no amount of blonde can blunt.
The circular cynics will just say she's a horrific person who is horrible at her job and none of it matters because nothing matters. They have a point. The natural response is that once real suffering sets in (See last month's job report, prices still just awful, healthcare through the roof, all that money into an unwinnable war), stuff that used to not matter suddenly matters a lot. Such times call for empathy, reassurance, competence, shared anger about the issues — traits that if Americans won't see from Trump, they want from someone in the White House. Traits Leavitt has masterfully eschewed, which, ironically, qualified her for the job in the first place.
Yes, Susie Wiles can head off a lot of this — Wiles is not about to let bad news for the American people stand in the way of a drive to totalitarianism. But in the end, it's Leavitt who most often speaks for the administration. As voters get angrier and more cynical themselves, even professional mean girls have to occasionally make nice. Karoline simply doesn't have that club in her bag, and she damn sure won't find it in Trump's, either. Indeed, there's little point in being a bouncy blonde if you cannot soften the sharp sticks coming from the roughest... other White House blonde?
She does have talent (calm down, cynics), talent for tossing aside some of the most egregious presidential acts in history, but that talent hasn't really been tested at this level as voters consider what they might or might not want changed. Among Leavitt's talents is a breathtaking ability to inadvertently hover a flamethrower over that oil spill in the White House.
She has used it to burn through issues before. Soon, she may only burn him, at which point, Leavitt may eventually find herself paid to hold down a Fox couch while blonde... at least she's not testifying. And boy, if she never feared her inexperience before, just wait.
Jason Miciak is a Raw Story Columnist, former editor of Occupy Democrats, an author, political consultant, attorney, and single parent, girldad. Please follow on Bluesky. He can be reached at jasonmiciak@gmail.com
