Karoline Leavitt is leaving her role as White House press secretary, a position she has held since President Trump took office in January 2025. Day after day she has stood before the press, taking questions, imparting the position of the Trump administration, and slinging barbs at reporters who she felt were out of line. But all that time, she was a mom, and it's that role that she's decided to lean all the way into after the birth of her second child.
This decision exemplifies her conservative values and what ought to be the values of American culture at large: we should want our mothers to be able to choose the life of full-time motherhood over career and job. Instead of pushing daycare options and early school, our elected leaders should encourage a culture where families can afford to have mom stay home and provide that most invaluable resource to the children who will soon lead us, maternal care.
The concept of the working mom has long been with us in America. There's the single mom who has to work, for whom we should all feel a certain amount of pity if the narrative of the media and pundit class holds, and then there's the career gal who drops her kids off at daycare, her stiletto heels clicking on the pavement as she and her power suit are whisked off to matters deemed much more important than motherhood.
Kudos to Karoline for ditching the archetype and getting back to what really matters, and also what an unbelievably wonderful privilege to be able to choose motherhood in an age where so many American families require two incomes just to get by.
"The truth is since returning to the White House after the birth of my daughter," Leavitt shared in announcing her departure, "I have felt in my heart that I cannot be the best mom my two young children deserve while devoting the constant time, energy, and attention required of the White House Press Secretary — and that is why I have ultimately made the bittersweet decision to depart the White House and embark on a new chapter in my life."
When my son was born I cobbled together vacation, sick days, and maternity leave, and managed to get about 3 months off from my full-time job. When I went back, it was part-time, and it was not because I wanted to leave him. There were bills to pay. But I never went back full time until I was able to obtain a remote position, meaning for several years now I've been able to work and be an at-home mom, for which I am incredibly grateful.
It's a wonderful thing to be able to choose motherhood full time and it is my sincere wish that more American women were able to do that financially and that our society had more respect for the choice. As a culture we have veered away from even believing that mothers are necessary.
Children are manufactured without mothers in the commercial surrogacy industry and parents are encouraged to leave their infants and children in day care facilities while government leaders encourage taxpayers to fund those centers to enable more parents to leave their children behind.
American women are collectively instructed to follow their career dreams and encouraged to put off having children, sometimes until it's way too late. Actress Allison Janney found that out the hard way. Speaking to Monica Lewinsky on her "Reclaiming" podcast, Janney revealed that she pursued first-time motherhood over 40. A meeting with a fertility doctor dashed her hopes, telling her that it was unlikely she would be able to conceive.
"I was under the impression that women could have kids 'til they were 50 or something," Janney told Lewinsky. "The first I heard that I wouldn't be able to have a kid at 40-something was in this fertility doctor's office. She was like, 'The odds are not in your favor.'" The two complained that no one told them this before—perhaps the entire conversation around career and motherhood in our culture is way too skewed toward career and love is just left out.
Many American women will have neither the career of Leavitt or Janney nor the option to leave a career position to focus entirely on motherhood, but for those who can choose motherhood, who are able to prioritize love, the bountiful reward will be far greater than for those who choose to click-clack away into career glory.
This article originally appeared in Libby Emmons' newsletter. You can subscribe here.
