Narrowing the search for Trump’s next press secretary

The Trump administration has yet to announce who will become its most public-facing official, but there are a few big names who could take the reins of the White House briefing room.WASHINGTON (CN) — In the hours after Karoline Leavitt announced the end of her tenure as White House press secretary, one big question swirled around Washington and on social media: Who will be her replacement?Leavitt announced in a statement Wednesday she would step down from her role to spend more time with her family, adding that President Donald Trump had asked her to continue working as an adviser “on the outside.”Trump, who went through four press secretaries during his first term, has yet to announce a new pick to fill one of his administration’s most public-facing roles. But media reports have named a few of Leavitt’s possible successors, a list that includes political commentators, conservative politicians and even one of the president’s most controversial former attorneys.Here are a few people who could soon find themselves behind the lectern in the White House briefing room.Scott JenningsScott Jennings is a longtime Republican strategist and political operative who for nearly a decade has worked as a political commentator, primarily on CNN. Jennings, 48, was a close adviser to Kentucky Senator and former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Before that, he worked inside the George W. Bush administration as a top political affairs official and worked on both of the former president’s campaigns.Since joining CNN as a commentator in 2017, Jennings has participated in roundtable discussions on the network, often as the panel’s sole conservative voice. He’s developed a reputation as a Trump ally, though he has on occasion broken with the administration — most recently saying a former Olympian charged by the Trump administration in connection with damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool “ought to sue” the government after the Justice Department dropped its case.Jennings has also courted some controversy in his time as a network commentator. He faced criticism after an April clash with fellow CNN panelist and liberal content creator Adam Mockler, which culminated in Jennings demanding Mockler get his “fucking hand” out of his face.The conservative commentator has been reported as the frontrunner for the press secretary job following Leavitt’s departure. Asked on CNN Wednesday night whether he’d accept the position if Trump offered, Jennings did not answer directly.“I don’t know,” he said. “But I’ll tell you this: Karoline Leavitt has been maybe the greatest White House press secretary in the last 30 years, at least.”Alina HabbaAlina Habba is a staunch Trump loyalist and former member of his legal team who has been serving in the Justice Department as an adviser to the attorney general’s office since late last year. Habba, 42, has experience working with the press — she was the president’s legal spokesperson while he was out of office and worked as a senior adviser to his super PAC.Habba also has a longstanding relationship with Trump. She was part of his personal legal team starting in 2021, working on his ill-fated $100 million lawsuit against the New York Times and defending him from a defamation lawsuit that same year. She was also Trump’s lead attorney in the E. Jean Carroll trial, in which a jury awarded the author $83 million in damages against the president.But Habba’s tenure in the second Trump administration has been a controversial one. The president last year appointed her to become U.S. attorney for New Jersey, but her Senate confirmation was effectively dead on arrival thanks to procedural roadblocks set by the Garden State’s Democratic lawmakers. Trump, using a novel legal strategy, attempted to keep Habba on the job after her 120-day tenure as acting U.S. attorney, but a judge last summer ruled she was serving illegally.Despite an appeal attempt by the Trump administration, Habba ultimately stepped down from the U.S. attorney position in December and transitioned into an advisory role at the Justice Department.Habba has not made any public statement about whether she’s being considered for press secretary. In a post on X made Thursday morning, she said Leavitt was “perfection” and that “nobody handled the fake news better.”“And whoever gets that podium next better come ready for a fight,” Habba wrote, adding a flexing bicep emoji.Kari LakeKari Lake is a former television anchor and repeat Republican political candidate who currently serves as senior adviser to the U.S. Agency for Global Media, the government organization which oversees Voice of America.With her media background, Lake, 56, would seem an apt fit for the White House briefing room. But she has proven a similarly controversial figure in both her political career as well as her time overseeing — and attempting to dismantle — the government’s international media apparatus.A federal judge ruled in March that the Arizona Republican, tapped early last year to advise the USAGM, had acted unlawfully as she attempted to shutter Voice of America and lay off its more than 1,000 employees. Lake had also attempted to partner federal media networks with One America News Network, a conservative news service that has pushed debunked narratives about the 2020 presidential election and the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riotThe court’s ruling reversed all Lake’s actions as the purported head of USAGM.As a political candidate, Lake mounted an ill-fated Senate campaign in 2024, losing to Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego by a roughly 3% margin. In 2022, she was similarly defeated in Arizona’s gubernatorial election by Democrat Katie Hobbs.Lake has not made any public statement about whether she would consider joining the White House staff to replace Leavitt. But in a social media post Wednesday she said the outgoing press secretary delivered a “daily master-class on how to handle the media during the most consequential moment in our nation’s history.”Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads