White House Press Secretary Makes Steely and Unflinching Debut

So much for respecting your elders.

Karoline Leavitt, the new White House press secretary — at 27, the youngest person ever to hold the job — kicked off her first briefing on Tuesday afternoon by reminding all the veteran reporters in assembly that they had become more irrelevant than ever. “Americans’ trust in mass media has fallen to a record low,” she said right off the top.

Twisting the knife, she added: “Millions of Americans — especially young people — have turned from traditional television outlets and newspapers.”

The place was packed with network television anchors and rumpled newspaper reporters who had been slinging questions around that cramped room since before Ms. Leavitt learned to walk or talk (which would have been sometime toward the end of the Clinton presidency). Smiling, ever-so-sweetly, she told the old-timers they’d have to make room for all the flashy new bloggers, influencers, “content creators” and podcasters she planned to invite to her briefings on a regular basis. It was, she said, high time that the White House “adapt” to the “new media landscape.”

And so, it was a new day in the old briefing room. Mr. Trump’s top flack wasted no time throwing down the gauntlet in her first performance behind the lectern. She was steely and her patience seemed to be in short supply at points. She betrayed no fear and little ambivalence and she seemed quite confident speaking on her boss’s behalf. Which was not always the case for some of her predecessors.

“She has a fantastic relationship with President Trump that’s much deeper than I had,” Sean Spicer, who was Mr. Trump’s first press secretary, said earlier this month. Ms. Leavitt, who was a low-level aide in the first Trump administration, spent the last year duking it out by Mr. Trump’s side as the press secretary for his campaign. She already speaks his language.

At 27, Ms. Leavitt is the youngest person ever to hold the White House press secretary position.Credit…Doug Mills/The New York Times

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