Leavitt Quits as Her Decoy-Flight Story Unravels
The CIA rated the Iranian threat "low confidence" and Israeli-derived — the same story Leavitt defended from the podium.
Donald Trump announced Wednesday night on Truth Social that Karoline Leavitt will leave the White House press secretary's job at the end of August. "Our wonderful White House Press Secretary, and one of my most trusted aides, Karoline Leavitt, will be departing her role at the end of the month so she can spend more time with her beautiful young children and family, a decision I totally understand and respect!" Trump wrote. He handed her a new title in the same post — "one of my top outside advisors, and an influential voice within the Republican Party" — enlisted, in his words, "to defy History, and conclusively win the Midterm Elections."
Trump posted the farewell the same week Leavitt's freshest briefing-room story collapsed. The Washington Post reported Wednesday that the CIA held "low confidence" in the Iranian assassination threat that sent Trump out of Turkey hidden in a catering truck and onto a secret military flight — intelligence one official called "Israeli-derived, not U.S.-generated." Marco Rubio and Scott Bessent rode the decoy Air Force One with the press corps, window shades down; Pete Hegseth flew with Trump. Leavitt defended the operation from the podium and vouched for the Qatari-donated jet at the center of it: "The new Air Force One is perfectly safe for the president's travels." A former official told the Post that some American intelligence officers believe Israel passed Washington the plot to steer Trump's Iran policy, not to save his life.
