It occurs to me that we don't know much about former White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, beyond the obvious: lost a congressional campaign, pregnant to a rich guy she later married, stumbled as press secretary, especially at first, and then got out with a veteran's sense of timing.
The above is obvious, and it's not that much, not really, especially since it sounds like she's about to tell us a great deal more in an upcoming tell-all book being shopped around, one that may make her as rich as her husband.
Sure, she's been a loyal Trumper all along and plans to work more at MAGA Inc., a pro-Trump PAC. You can she won't write any secrets that truly bury him — perhaps overhearing certain phone calls to the DOJ about "don't let a single one of those pictures out!" Nah, none of that.
But I'm damn sure no one is buying this book without some juice behind it. And here's the thing: to the extent she sells out the people she felt backstabbed her, those folks will surely not be more than one degree of separation from Trump.
And that's "sick," as the kool kidz say.
To be sure, she will portray herself as the hero. She will also say the press is full of horrible people who apologized to her in private. Whatever. But there will surely be more.
We do know there will be no Obama-like introspection in this one (and it will be nowhere near as well written, if one judges from her limited vocabulary and mean-girl disposition). Nah, no point in writing all about one's time there if one plans to be honest about the massive mistakes she made.
There is a template for books like this, and yes, the word "explosive" better be attached (and always is); some are genuinely "Holy Spit!" tell-alls; some don't rise to that level. But they all have enough palace intrigue to make insiders nervous, including the big guy himself. All have enough evidence of fumbles to embarrass the principal offender; all have enough to ruin relationships for good, or none get above a six-figure advance.
She will want a seven-figure deal with her strutting right onto pages full of MAGA White House madness. Additionally, there might not be anybody better positioned to dish out the good stuff than the press secretary.
Indeed, the NewYork Post's Page Six states: "Sources tell us that tome will include behind-the-scenes details of Leavitt’s tenure as the youngest-ever White House press secretary under President Trump.
Press secretaries occupy a weird role in any political operation, especially the White House. They need to be kept in the loop on most matters to effectively answer questions with prepared zingers. And yet they are occasionally left entirely out of big-time decisions specifically so they aren't put into situations where they must outright lie to the press.
Granted, this administration lies all the time. But they try to keep the laughable out of the press room, preferring to not answer the question and merely insulting the reporter. Juvenile, but effective from their point of view.
It is during little gaggles, personal talks, off-the-record phone calls, that something someone — but certainly not everyone — wants intentionally leaked gets shared. And that can be killer. She may not give up the specific name, but nothing could matter less in that one degree of separation thing.
In any matter deemed "explosive," there is the extreme likelihood that it will involve a matter Trump either knew about or damn well should have known about.
There is another element about Leavitt's White House experience that should provide ample accelerant to her TNT tell-all. Other than, well, Hegseth, Noem... She may have been the least qualified for the job, and no, that's not a mean response to the mean girl. How many others started their communications experience in a presidential campaign, and their first government political spokesperson job was actually White House press secretary at 27? Maybe the lack of specific experience could be waived if she had a law degree, another 10-15 years evolving gills to swim the swamp, then maybe one could adequately take a first spokesperson job at the White House.
Leavitt wasn't that.
What does that mean? It means mistakes were made — rookie mistakes — and rookies tend to try to put their mistakes on others, which generates friction, which generates resentment, generating the need to have the last word in books that — if they have enough such disses — generate seven figures.
Look, Leavitt was out of her league from the beginning, which would matter in any administration except this one, where the qualifications broke down between A) looking like Karoline Leavitt, and B) sounding like Karoline Leavitt. But just because she qualified for this White House doesn't mean she was really qualified for the job and, again, that's where mistakes, grudges, all stuff that sparks bombs, come from.
Last, let's look at what we'd kinda like to hear from Karoline. Trash. That's what we want. Trashing others for actually accurate accounts of what went on while she walked those halls. One of Trump's true horrific gifts is opening his scandals for all to see from day one. There is never, ever, a cover-up.
But there might be a cover-up by others. There might be a cover-up of something kept from Trump that will send him into a fury, knowing that the people under him sold him out at times.
This could be good. The more she narrates, the less she writes, the better. The deeper she gets, the more money comes her way, making it easier and easier to drift from MAGA's good graces and into a good life that virtually no one else her age can afford.
Wow. It is even conceivable that, if sufficiently open, we may find just slices of her to respect — CONCEIVABLE. It is possible she got out because she just couldn't tell one more lie, not one more insult, looked around, saw it collapsing around her, and decided to contribute her own explosives.
Jason Miciak is a Raw Story columnist, former editor of Occupy Democrats, author, consultant, and attorney. Please follow on Bluesky. And he can be reached at jasonmiciak@gmail.com