Former White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt made a high-profile return to the national political stage Thursday night, addressing Republicans at the party’s midterm convention in Dallas less than two weeks after leaving the Trump administration.
Leavitt appeared during prime-time programming on the second and final night of the Republican gathering, delivering a speech focused heavily on President Donald Trump’s record and urging supporters to turn out in the November elections.
“We cannot be a wealthy people if we elect extreme liberal socialist Democrats who will raise our rent and taxes, take away our private property, and kill the American dream,” she told the cheering crowd.
“Democrat socialist countries always end in poverty, in famine, in misery, and that’s why we will never allow that to happen here in the United States of America, the best country in the world,” she added.
Democrats’ “false economic promises may sound nice on paper,” she added, “but in practice, they will only result in empty opportunities and broken communities.”
Her appearance marked one of her first major public political events since stepping down as White House press secretary Aug. 27 and rejoining MAGA Inc., the pro-Trump super PAC where she previously worked before Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.
Leavitt opened with a reference to her former job behind the White House briefing-room podium.
“I’m accustomed to addressing a room of people who generally don’t like me very much,” she joked, contrasting the Republican audience in Dallas with members of the White House press corps.
She then took a familiar swipe at mainstream news organizations, referring to reporters she previously confronted during briefings as the “fake news,” according to The Wall Street Journal.
The speech quickly shifted toward the midterms.
Leavitt urged Republican voters not to assume that Trump’s 2024 victory or the party’s current control of Washington would automatically translate into success in November.
“Pair your prayer with action,” she told the crowd, encouraging supporters to vote and help Republicans retain control of Congress.
The Dallas convention was organized largely around that objective.
Trump has made himself the centerpiece of the Republican Party’s 2026 campaign strategy, repeatedly asking supporters to approach the midterms as though he were personally on the ballot.
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The two-day event featured Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Donald Trump Jr., Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., congressional leaders and candidates from competitive House and Senate races.
Leavitt’s return carried additional significance because she had only recently left one of the most visible jobs in the administration.
Trump announced Aug. 12 that Leavitt would step down at the end of the month to spend more time with her family.
Leavitt gave birth to her second child, a daughter, in May and said the demands of serving as White House press secretary made it difficult to devote the time she wanted to her two young children.
Trump said at the time that Leavitt would remain one of his top outside advisers and would continue playing a significant role in Republican politics ahead of the midterms.
She subsequently announced that she would return to MAGA Inc., the super PAC aligned with Trump that has accumulated hundreds of millions of dollars for political spending.
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That distinction is important: Leavitt is no longer a White House employee and is not serving in an official government communications role.
Her current work places her back in the political operation surrounding Trump through MAGA Inc. and her role as an outside adviser.
Before joining Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, Leavitt had also worked as a spokeswoman for MAGA Inc. from 2022 to 2024. She later became national press secretary for Trump’s campaign before being selected as White House press secretary after his election.
Leavitt used Thursday’s speech to praise several areas of Trump’s second-term record, including immigration enforcement and crime.
She also offered personal stories about Trump’s interactions with families affected by tragedy, arguing that the public often sees a different side of the president than people who work closely with him.