This 29-year-old former beauty queen might become the new mouthpiece for the Trump administration.
White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt's August 12th announcement that she's leaving her role stunned the nation
and triggered a massive buzz about who might replace her behind the briefing room lectern.
However,
White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly
has emerged as a favorite to take on the role, according to prediction markets.
Given that Kelly is immediately below Leavitt in the White House communications echelon,
she could have a leg up on the competition with direct experience around the role.
Nonetheless,
Kelly presents a distinctly unique resume for a senior White House aide.
Prior to her career in politics,
Kelly competed as a beauty queen,
winning Miss State Fair of Virginia in 2019 and Miss Madison in Wisconsin in 2022.
She graduated from Auburn University with a degree in political science in 2017,
and later attended George Washington University, where she earned her master's in political management in 2021.
During her time at GW,
Kelly began her career in politics when she became the communications director for the Wisconsin Republican National Committee.
Just three years later,
the Virginia native found herself as the national press secretary of the RNC.
At the start of President Trump's second term,
Kelly was selected as the principal deputy press secretary,
where she's been operating under Caroline Levitt.
This year,
Kelly emerged in the spotlight while Levitt was away on maternity leave.
Taking on the role as a public representative of the administration.
Nothing's changed.
The president,
as he said time and time again,
is extremely serious.
Iran, a country that for 47 years
has chanted death to America,
has
threatened our troops overseas, can never possess a nuclear weapon.
Leavitt announced that she was departing to spend more time raising her two young children.
And is expected to remain a close adviser to the president.
Sources within and close to the administration told the Post that other early frontrunners for the role
are believed to include Alina Habba,
the former acting
U.
S. attorney for New Jersey,
and Breitbart Washington bureau chief Matthew Boyle.
A White House source recently told the Post that Trump has not yet decided on a permanent replacement for Leavitt, who will be leaving her role at the end of August.