Meet Kayleigh McEnany: The New White House Press Secretary
On Tuesday, Stephanie Grisham announced her decision to step down as the White House press secretary and rejoin Melania Trump's office as chief of staff. The Trump administration tapped former CNN contributor Kayleigh McEnany to join the communications team.
According to reports, McEnany will work alongside two other newly-tapped members, Alyssa Farah and Ben Williamson. Farah will serve as the White House director of strategic communications while Williamson will act as a senior adviser for communications.
McEnany will reportedly go head-to-head on camera as the president's fourth press secretary---a task her predecessor has never done in her nine months serving Donald Trump.
Meet Kayleigh McEnany?
McEnany is a 31-year-old political commentator and writer who graduated from Harvard Law School. She was named press secretary for President Trump's reelection campaign in 2019.
As a high school and college student, she interned for numerous politicians, including Adam Putnam and George W. Bush.
She worked as a producer on Mike Huckabee's television show and regularly appeared on Fox News after graduating from Georgetown University.
She made a name for herself as an avid defender of the president after defending him on CNN.
Kayleigh joined Trump's reelection campaign in 2019, becoming a standard fixture at his political rallies. She became the president's vocal defender on television.
The Tampa-born spokesperson published a book called The New American Revolution: The Making of a Populist Movement in January 2018.
She is married to professional baseball pitcher Sean Gilmartin with whom she shares a daughter.
Job expectations
Much like previous press secretaries, McEnany is expected to further the president's message as well as defend his decisions in interviews. It is unclear whether she will host press briefings as answering questions from the press has long been subsumed by the president himself.
Her appointment as the new press secretary is the latest change in the Trump administration's communications team. The office has seen a constant turnover since 2017.
According to a report, one of McEnany's job responsibilities will be to build out a rapid response team similar to that from the 2019 reelection campaign.
The West Office environment will be a change of pace for the former CNN contributor who has spent much of her days traveling to Trump rallies and interacting with the president's supporters. Her work in the campaign has made her one of its most visible surrogates.
She has recently participated in various online reelection campaign events---with some scheduled throughout April.
The White House has refused to comment when McEnany will start on her new job.
White House Shake-Ups
Stephanie Grisham, known for her aggressive exchanges with Trump critics on Twitter, will replace Lindsay Reynolds from the first lady's office.
Mark Meadows, a retiring Republican congressman, replaced Mick Mulvaney as the White House's fourth chief of staff after the previous three fell out of the president's favor.
Former communications director, Hope Hicks, also joined the White House communications team in February 2020. She is working with the White House senior adviser, Jared Kushner.
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