• Karoline Leavitt discussed leaving her White House role in an appearance on Sean Hannity's podcast.
• She called being a working mom "the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life."
• Leavitt has two children with her husband, 60-year-old real-estate developer Nicholas Riccio.

For Karoline Leavitt, the hardest part of serving as President Donald Trump's press secretary wasn't facing reporters — it was leaving her young children at home.

Leavitt was the youngest-ever White House press secretary before announcing her departure in August. In a podcast episode of "Hang Out with Sean Hannity" released Tuesday, she spoke about her decision to step back from her role in the Trump administration to focus on her family.

"Being a working mom was the hardest thing I've ever had to do in my life," she said.

Leavitt, 28, shares two children with her husband, 60-year-old real-estate developer Nicholas Riccio.

She told Hannity that her struggle to balance work and motherhood began shortly after her first child was born in July 2024. Leavitt watched on live TV as Trump survived an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, the same day she brought her son, Niko, home from the hospital. She returned to work as the Trump campaign's national press secretary just days after giving birth.

"As a three-day postpartum woman, that was very traumatic, and I had a choice to make," Leavitt said. "I had producers calling, 'Can you come on TV and talk about this?' And I felt as though I owed it to the president to do that."

Her appointment as White House press secretary didn't make her work-life balance any easier, Leavitt said.

'I don't know if I can do this anymore'

Leavitt told Hannity that the long hours her job required took a toll on her 2-year-old son.

"I would leave for the White House very early in the morning, and he would cling to my leg as I would walk out the door, and we would have to hide him sometimes so that I wouldn't have to break his heart again," she said. "And sometimes I would drive to the White House in silence, like, 'I don't know if I can do this anymore.'"

After giving birth to her daughter, Viviana, in May, Leavitt said she realized it was time to make a change.

"The president deserves someone in that job who can give it their all 24/7," she said. "And after having two kids, I just realized I couldn't."

Trump "couldn't have been kinder" about her decision to leave the White House, Leavitt said.

"It was the hardest decision I've ever had to make because I loved my job and I love the president and our team and I believe so much in what he's doing," Leavitt said. "But, as he jokes, I do love my kids more, and you know, I realize they need me home right now, especially during these young years."

• A growing share of Americans living in rural areas aren't happy with data centers.
• Most data centers are built in rural areas.
• Data centers are facing a public reckoning amid bipartisan pushback.

Americans living in rural areas are increasingly souring on data centers.

In a new poll by the Pew Research Center, which surveyed people in August, half of rural Americans said data centers "are mostly bad for the environment" — a figure substantially higher than in January, when it sat at 32%.

46% of those respondents also said that data centers would drive up home energy costs, up from 32% in January. 45% said they negatively impact the quality of life for those living nearby, while 28% said so in January.

While displeasure with data centers increased among Americans across the board, according to Pew, higher levels of antagonism among rural voters are striking because most data centers are built in rural areas.

The data center buildout, which proponents say is integral for the US to keep pace with China in the AI race, has been suffering a PR crisis as a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers moves to impose limits on data center construction.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbot, who was formerly bullish about building data centers in his state, recently backed away from that optimism. His administration has halted some 1,800 AI data center projects in the state.

All across the country, Americans are rallying to fight against AI data centers, which can cost billions to build and span hundreds of acres. Many are concerned about how the sprawling facilities will affect the environment, utility prices, water resources, and noise levels. Some just don't like AI.

For AI companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, Google, and others, the issue is existential. Without AI data centers, they can't power the products they sell. Sam Altman has recently suggested that new data centers could be built far from where people lived, such as the desert.

Proponents of data centers have said the buildout brings jobs to rural areas. Venture capitalist Gavin Baker recently said that data centers are "probably the best thing that has ever happened to working-class Americans."

Tech bros haven't been able to agree on exactly why Americans aren't taking to the data center buildout. Some have postulated that a Chinese-orchestrated psy-op is behind the distrust, while others said tech leaders haven't sold the product well.

President Donald Trump, for his part, called the data center buildout "the golden goose," and warned against falling behind China.

"The only reason that communities throughout the U.S.A. should not want Data Centers is if they want to end up being backwards and poor," Trump said in August in a Truth Social post.

In the Pew poll, very few Americans — about 4% — said data centers are "good" for the environment, energy costs, and quality of life.

"Americans have grown more negative toward the possible environmental and economic effects of data centers since the beginning of the year," Pew said in a release. "And a majority say they'd be uncomfortable if a new data center started operating in their area."