Karoline Leavitt, the White House’s youngest-ever press secretary, is set to formerly address the press for the first time since being appointed by Donald Trump.
While the 27-year-old has recently taken questions from reporters aboard Air Force One, Tuesday will be the first time she uses the White House briefing room.
Here we take a look at who Ms Leavitt is and how Mr Trump came to appoint the regular Fox News contributor as his press secretary for his second stint as president.
‘Smart and tough’
Following his win against Democratic rival and former vice president Kamala Harris in November, Mr Trump announced the appointment of Ms Leavitt saying: “Karoline is smart, tough, and has proven to be a highly effective communicator.
“I have the utmost confidence she will excel at the podium, and help deliver our message to the American people as we, Make America Great Again.”
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A fierce Trump loyalist, Ms Leavitt, from the typically Democrat-supporting state of New Hampshire, had previously held the position of campaign press secretary before being included in the president’s White House team.
Before that, she worked as a spokesperson for the MAGA Inc political action committee – known in the US as a super PAC – supporting Mr Trump, while in 2022, she ran for Congress in New Hampshire but lost.
Ms Leavitt, who grew up in the small town of Atkinson, and whose family ran an ice cream shop, reacted to her appointment as White House press secretary by thanking the president “for believing in me”.
“I am humbled and honoured,” Ms Leavitt said in a post on X, adding: “Let’s MAGA!”.
‘We have a little boy, but he’s not so little now!’
Many of Ms Leavitt’s posts on Instagram over the past few months have highlighted her double life as a key member of Team Trump and a first-time mum who returned to work just four days after giving birth.
Speaking of her decision to cut her maternity leave short, Ms Leavitt described to news outlet The Conservateur how she was holding her son when she saw the attempt on the life of her boss being streamed live on TV in July.
“I looked at my husband and said: ‘Looks like I’m going back to work’,” she said.
Ms Leavitt, who previously posted a video of her unloading a machine gun with the caption ‘Hey Joe Biden… come and take it!”, told the outlet in October: “I felt compelled to be present in this historic moment.
“The president literally put his life on the line to win this election. The least I could do is get back to work quickly.”
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Ms Leavitt also described receiving a lot of support at work with her pregnancy and the birth of her child, to the point where Mr Trump himself called her to ask how she was getting on.
During the call, the president, who with his wife Melania has 18-year-old Barron, cracked a joke saying: “We have a little boy, but he’s not so little now!”
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What is her relationship with the media?
Ms Leavitt, much like Mr Trump, has accused certain sections of the media of “fake news”.
In November last year, she hit back at the reaction to comments Mr Trump made about Liz Cheney – one of his most vocal Republican critics – who he said would not be a “radical war hawk” if she was in a war herself and had guns “trained on her face”.
Before being appointed to the role of press secretary, Ms Leavitt previously made regular appearances on the conservative news channel, Fox News.
Ms Leavitt follows in the footsteps of Mr Trump’s four press secretaries during his first administration.
They were Sean Spicer, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who is now the governor of Arkansas, Stephanie Grisham, conservative commentator, Kayleigh McEnany, who is now a contributor for Fox News.
