‘Children shouldn’t be delayed for careers’: White House pregnancies have become pronatalist propaganda

As the Trump administration stokes anxiety about US birthrates, Karoline Leavitt and Katie Miller have touted motherhood as the ultimate ‘blessing’ On a Sunday in late March, dozens of White House staffers dressed in florals and pastels gathered at the Trump National Golf Club in Virginia to celebrate the impending arrival of Karoline Leavitt’s second child. “I feel blessed to have so many strong and loving women in my life,” the White House press secretary would later post on Instagram, “and can’t believe we will welcome our little lady into the world in a few weeks.” The vibes of the pink-themed baby shower, as documented in a New York Post exclusive, were soft, bordering on twee – a sharp contrast to the professional persona of a woman the Hungarian autocrat Viktor Orbán once joked about hiring after witnessing her cage matches with the press. Leavitt gave birth on 1 May, becoming the first White House press secretary in US history to deliver a child while holding the position. She is one of several women in the president’s orbit on a similar journey: Katie Miller, the rightwing podcaster and wife of top White House aide Stephen Miller, and the second lady,