Karoline Leavitt, 28, is leaving her demanding job as Donald Trump’s press secretary to spend more time with her two young children and her 60-year-old husband. According to a post by Trump On Truth Social, Leavitt will be departing her role at the end of the month and will serve as one of Trump’s “top outside advisors”.

In other words: the official version of events is that Leavitt is resigning on her own terms for family reasons and not because Trump’s approval ratings are at record lows and she’s a rat fleeing a sinking ship.

But is the official version of events the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Don’t bother asking Leavitt – I’m not sure she knows much about the T-word. She might have been the youngest White House press secretary in history, but there’s no denying her communication style made her eminently qualified for a role in the Trump administration. I won’t muck about with euphemisms such as misrepresented or stated without evidence or made false claims. Leavitt’s legacy in government was attacking Trump’s enemies and spouting lie after lie after lie.

Being a lowly writer means I am held to far higher standards about what I can say than the departing press secretary or her boss, the president of the United States. Unlike Leavitt or Trump, I actually have to provide facts and evidence to back up my assertions. So here we go: here are a few fun facts about Leavitt’s tenure in public office.

First, there’s her role in promoting lies about the economy. One of the most significant economic policies of Trump’s second term has been his global tariffs, which were initially extended even to volcanic islands inhabited only by penguins. During a press briefing in March 2025, Leavitt told reporters that tariffs were a “tax cut for the American people”. Economists have said this is nonsense. “Economists don’t agree on much,........

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