Washington, United States:

Donald Trump’s new press secretary on Tuesday invited TikTokers and podcasters to apply for White House press passes, in an effort to reach beyond the mainstream media that the US president often slams. In her first time at the White House podium, Karoline Leavitt said an additional seat for “new media voices” had been reserved at the front of the cramped briefing room.

Trump has repeatedly criticized traditional media as the “enemy of the people,” and he credits a series of podcast appearances for aiding his return to the White House. 

“As the youngest press secretary in history, thanks to President Trump, I take great pride in opening up this room to new media voices,” the 27-year-old Leavitt told a packed briefing room.

“Whether you are a TikTok content creator, a blogger, a podcaster, if you are producing legitimate news content… you will be allowed to apply for press credentials to this White House,” she said.

The shake-up was more modest that some news organizations had feared, after the president’s son Donald Trump Jr. talked in November about “opening up” the press room.

The 49 seats in the room are allocated to a number of news organizations, including AFP, that are members of the White House Correspondents Association.

Reporters without seats are allowed to stand at the side if there is space — as they did for Leavitt’s packed-out debut on Tuesday.

The new press secretary also vowed to hold reporters accountable for what she said were “lies” about Trump.

“We know for a fact there have been lies that have been pushed by many legacy media outlets in this country about this president, about his family, and we will not accept that,” she said.

The briefing at the iconic White House podium was Leavitt’s first since Trump was inaugurated eight days ago. She has so far largely spoken to conservative television outlets including Fox News.

Trump sidestepped interviews with some major US TV networks during the election campaign, opting instead to speak to several largely right-wing podcasts including the hugely popular Joe Rogan Experience.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Washington:

She’s the face of a Trump-supporting Gen Z movement and the youngest White House press secretary in history. Now Karoline Leavitt is stepping up to the podium for the first time.

The 27-year-old is already a polished presence, with her social media profile mixing shots of life as a young working mother with clips of her on Fox News going after the “fake news” media.

But it has taken more than a week into Donald Trump’s second term for Leavitt to make her debut before the press in the James S. Brady briefing room at the White House.

It reflects the difficulties that Trump’s spokespeople face to emerge out of the shadow of their limelight-loving boss, with the president already having had several long interactions with the media since returning to power.

“See you at the podium!” Leavitt said on X ahead of the briefing.

Trump said when he appointed her shortly after his election win in November that Leavitt was “smart, tough” and would “excel at the podium.”

‘Wonder woman’

Leavitt is nothing if not a Trump loyalist.

Raised in New Hampshire, where her family ran an ice cream shop, she sent a letter to her university newspaper in 2017 to protest against the fact that a professor had criticized Trump in class.

Eight years later she has had a meteoric rise through the ranks of Trumpworld, thanks partly to her aggressive defense of her 78-year-old boss on the airwaves.

A veteran of the press office in his first term, she unsuccessfully ran for a seat in Congress in New Hampshire in 2022 on a pro-Trump, pro-gun ownership platform.

An Instagram post at the time showed her firing a machinegun on a range with the caption: “@joebiden come and take it.”

Then her steely appearances on television as Trump’s 2024 campaign spokeswoman earned her the job as press secretary.

In one notable exchange, a CNN interviewer cut Leavitt off after she criticized the network’s moderators chosen to oversee a debate between Trump and then-president Joe Biden.

Her loyalty was such that she returned to work four days after the birth of her first child when Trump survived an assassination attempt at a political rally last June.

“I looked at my husband and said, ‘Looks like I’m going back to work,” Leavitt told The Conservateur magazine in an article titled “Wonder Woman.”

Sparring

The White House briefing room will be a different experience, with its rough-and-tumble sparring with journalists.

Since Trump returned to power, she has so far only had a brief encounter with reporters on the driveway outside the West Wing, followed by a single “gaggle” on Air Force One as Trump traveled to California.

Her television appearances have almost exclusively been reserved for Fox News and the conservative Newsmax channel.

But she has still caused a stir, with conservative commentator Mary Rooke posting a picture of her driveway appearance with two similarly coiffed aides and saying: “We are finally entering our Blonde Supremacy era.”

As she steps up to the podium on Tuesday, Leavitt will be seeking to avoid the fate of Trump’s previous spokespeople.

His first, Sean Spicer, was widely ridiculed after falsely insisting during his first briefing that the crowd for Trump’s 2017 inauguration was the largest history.

Three other spokespeople followed during the first term with one of them, Stephanie Grisham, failing to make a single appearance at the podium.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)