Was being left on Trump’s bomb-threat plane the final straw for Karoline Leavitt?
Trump’s loyal press secretary Karoline Leavitt stepped down from her role this week, days after it emerged she was left with members of the press on a plane facing a terror threat. Was this just a coincidence?
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Karoline Leavitt had an "extraordinary" talent, The News Agents say. But it wasn't her abilities as a press secretary for Donald Trump.
Her skill in the White House press room, Lewis Goodall says, was recognising that success under the MAGA president was to act as his "avatar", and serve neither the press or the administration – only him.
"The key to success for a Donald Trump press secretary was to be seen by the president every day conducting political theatre," Lewis says.
"For the president, but also the wider MAGA movement to feast upon and enjoy.
"As part of that she disseminated, she lied for the president daily, but she did it extraordinarily well."
She has now stepped down from that role, with conspiracy theorists suggesting her resignation after a Trump decoy stunt is no coincidence.
Following a NATO meeting in Turkey, Trump slipped out of a US plane (carrying Leavitt, other members of his administration and international press) and onto another, following a reported terror threat from Iran.
There have been suggestions that being put in potential danger may have been the final straw for loyal Leavitt.
"She was left on the plane that could have been blown up," says Jon Sopel.
"I think it probably wasn't the reason she left, but I can imagine a lot of people are thinking 'what the f*** is going on here?'"
Lewis says this was the "natural end point" for Karoline Leavitt.
"In the end, even she was lied to," he says.