WASHINGTON, Aug. 13 -- She had been back at the briefing room podium for six weeks when she made her decision. Karoline Leavitt, the youngest White House press secretary in history and now the mother of a newborn daughter and a toddler son, will leave the role at the end of August, a departure announced Wednesday by President Donald Trump on Truth Social and confirmed in a statement Leavitt posted to her own account on X.

Trump, who has rarely spoken warmly about any official who departed his administration voluntarily, called Leavitt one of his "most trusted aides" and said she would become "one of my top outside advisors," working with the Republican Party to win the November midterm elections. The compliments were unambiguous. They we...