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Long before Donald Trump was swooning about her being a White House star with “lips that move like a machine gun,” Karoline Leavitt was teaching aspiring politicos how to conduct themselves if they ever landed a job in the administration.
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While she doesn’t talk about it these days, the 27-year-old press secretary once played a starring role in a training video created by the Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank responsible for the president’s Project 2025 playbook. The 30-minute guide, titled “The Art of Professionalism,” was produced before Trump returned to the Oval Office and features Leavitt providing tips on everything from competence (“you have to be resourceful,” she says); to “knowledge” (“reading the news of the day”); and “confidence” (“just be prepared”).
Leavitt had not yet graced the podium when she filmed the video with Chris Hayes, who was then the careers coordinator at the right-wing Leadership Institute (and not to be confused with the left-wing MSNBC host of the same name).
She had, however, clocked up some experience in the briefing room during Trump’s first term as an assistant press secretary to spinner-turned-Fox News host Kayleigh McEnany.
“Those were some of the most high-pressure moments of my life, knowing that the White House press corps was out there, going to berate my boss on something that we had not covered throughout the day,” she says.
“But rather than get stressed out, cry or have a negative emotional response, you have to pull yourself up from your bootstraps, you have to be prepared, and you have to execute in that moment.”
Leavitt need not worry now, as her current boss is suitably impressed by her obfuscation skills and on-stage presence.
“It’s that face. It’s that brain. It’s those lips. The way they move,” Trump said of his press secretary during a creepy Newsmax interview last month. The art of professionalism indeed.
This exclusive extract from this week’s edition of The Swamp is just a taste of the delicious secrets we reveal every week. Sign up here to never miss an edition.
