Fox News host Greg Gutfeld joked that outgoing White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt could follow a well-worn path from the White House briefing room to cable news after she leaves the Trump administration at the end of August.
The wisecrack came Thursday on “The Five” as Gutfeld and co-hosts Emily Compagno, Jessica Tarlov, Charles Hurt and Shannon Bream discussed who President Donald Trump could choose to replace Leavitt.
“Rumor has it, you’re up for the job,” Gutfeld told Bream, according to Mediaite.
“They can’t afford me,” Bream shot back.
Gutfeld then turned the conversation toward Leavitt’s own future.
“I worry that she’ll come to work at Fox, and now we’ll have three of ’em,” he said, referring to Fox personalities Dana Perino and Kayleigh McEnany, both of whom previously served as White House press secretary.
“We already have Dana, and Kayleigh, and then we’ll have Karoline,” Gutfeld continued, according to The Mirror US. “And then they’ll have their own show.”
Hurt accused Gutfeld of making the conversation “so awkward,” but the panel kept the bit going by floating several Fox hosts for the high-profile White House role.
Gutfeld told Compagno that he could see her as a “dynamite press secretary,” pointing to her background as a professional cheerleader and her experience at Fox. When he joked that he was trying to get her off “The Five,” Compagno replied: “To make room for Karoline.”
The exchange was playful speculation—not a report that Leavitt is negotiating with Fox News. Leavitt has not announced plans to join the network, and Trump said her next role will keep her connected to his political operation.
Still, Gutfeld’s joke drew on a real revolving door between the White House podium and television news. Perino served as press secretary under President George W. Bush before building a prominent career at Fox, including as a co-host of “The Five.” McEnany was Trump’s final press secretary during his first administration and joined Fox News in 2021, later becoming a co-host of “Outnumbered.”
Trump announced Wednesday that Leavitt would leave her post at the end of the month to spend more time with her family. He praised the 28-year-old as “one of my most trusted aides” and said she would remain one of his “top outside advisors” while serving as an influential Republican voice ahead of the midterm elections.
Leavitt, who recently returned to the White House after the birth of her second child, described the decision as “bittersweet.”
“I have felt in my heart that I cannot be the best mom my two young children deserve while devoting the constant time, energy, and attention required of the White House Press Secretary,” she wrote in a statement posted to X.
Leavitt became the youngest White House press secretary in history when she took the job at age 27. Before joining the administration, she served as Trump’s 2024 campaign spokeswoman, worked in his first White House and mounted an unsuccessful congressional bid in New Hampshire.
Trump has not named her successor. And while Gutfeld may already be imagining another former press secretary at Fox, the only job Leavitt has publicly lined up so far is advising the president from outside the White House.
