President Donald Trump speaks with reporters, while White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stands next to him, on the South Lawn at the White House in Washington, D.C., July 15, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
President Donald Trump is fixated on hiring "young women" for a specific White House role, according to his one-time biographer, because he can "yell at them better."
Michael Wolff is a veteran reporter and author, best known for his extensive coverage of Trump, including several books about his tumultuous first term. Much of that reporting was based on sources close to Trump and his inner circle, as well as considerable access to Trump himself. During the latest episode of his Daily Beast podcast, "Inside Trump's Head," he revealed why Trump's next pick for White House Press Secretary will most likely be another young woman, despite rumors that CNN's Scott Jennings is under consideration.
"As I say, he likes young women in this role, so I mean, that could change," Wolff said.
Karoline Leavitt announced recently that she will be departing her role as press secretary at the end of the month, citing a desire to spend more time with her family, but prompting speculation that she was being forced out for some unknown reason. Leavitt was the youngest person ever to serve in the role, starting when she was just 27.
He noted further that the role under Trump has almost exclusively been filled by women, like Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Stephanie Grisham and Kayleigh McEnany, who are also usually on the young side. The only exception so far has been Sean Spicer, the first press secretary from his first term, and according to Wolff, his performance in the job played a big role in why Trump has only hired women since then.
"He likes women out there because actually he can yell at them better," Wolff explained. "And they seem to take it in a way that, I mean, Sean Spicer just would fall apart every time the president would yell at him. Trump would yell at him, [he'd] fall apart, be a puddle on the floor. There was... the famous thing where he hid behind the the potted plant... You know, he just he just would get too rattled. So rattled that... he couldn't get out in front of the press and deliver, deliver his lines in a in a clear and cogent way."
He continued: "Unlike Karoline Leavitt, who's kind of remarkable, she was a junior person. She really emerged out of that just as a junior level person throughout the [2024] campaign. Still a junior level, you know, one of one of a kind of stable of people who would serve in the spokesperson's role."
"Well, and she got her job there at the White House as an intern [in Trump's first term], writing back to people who'd written to the president. So she was writing endless letters every day and cards back to them from the White House," co-host Joanna Coles added.
"By the way, and that's what Trump really likes," Wolff responded. "He likes people to come up through his ranks. He doesn't like to bring in outsiders."