Jimmy Fallon gives hilarious advice to Trump on finding a Karoline Leavitt replacement

Joe SommerladFri, August 14, 2026 at 3:49 PM UTC

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Jimmy Fallon has offered President Donald Trump some advice on how to replace his departing White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, suggesting he ask himself: “Who am I OK being stuck inside a catering truck with?”

The host of NBC’s The Tonight Show devoted much of Thursday’s opening monologue to Leavitt’s exit from the Trump administration, announced weeks after she returned from maternity leave for the birth of her second child.

His gag referred to this week’s dramatic revelation that Trump secretly switched planes at a Turkish airport in July to evade an assassination threat issued by Iran, concealing himself inside a hydraulic catering truck to be loaded onto an C-32A jet while the likes of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Leavitt and the press corps were left aboard Air Force One, effectively serving as a decoy when it took off for England.

Fallon began by joking about the circumstances of Leavitt’s resignation: “Yeah, between the non-stop White House construction and Trump, she wanted to be around something way quieter: a baby.”

He continued: “Apparently, Trump was caught off guard by Leavitt’s decision. And this is strange, Trump is now blaming her resignation on pool vandals.”

Jimmy Fallon jokes about White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt after she announced she was stepping down as President Donald Trump's spokeswoman and had some advice for Trump on finding a replacement (The Tonight Show/NBC)

The outgoing press secretary has a reputation for dogged loyalty to her boss, prepared, for instance, to echo his insistence that vandals were responsible for the damage done to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in June – only for the administration itself to admit in court filings that a “botched installation” by the contractors was the real cause.

“Trump was surprised by Leavitt’s decision,” Fallen went on. “She was like, ‘I wanted to wait for a good time, but there hasn’t been one, so...’”

Turning his attention to her potential successor, the comic joked: “Trump’s now looking for a replacement who can spin facts and numbers, so another good option is his doctor.”

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“I’m 155 pounds…” he said, impersonating the president.

Fallon then cited a report suggesting CNN’s resident conservative and Mitch McConnell-whisperer Scott Jennings was the front-runner and observed: “We’re just lucky Trump turned on his TV to a news channel. We were this close to seeing Press Secretary Bluey!”

“Of course when hiring someone, it’s also about personality, you know?” he continued. “You’ve got to think, like, ‘Who am I OK being stuck inside a catering truck with?’ You know what I’m saying? You gotta think ahead.”

Not finished there, Fallon cut to a sketch where “Leavitt” (Rose Kelso) rebuked the comedian for questioning her about her decision to leave and accused him of political bias while opening multiple cans of beer and chugging from a keg, no longer restrained by the niceties of public office.

Leavitt’s 18-month tenure was defined by clashes with reporters and a dogged loyalty to Trump (AFP/Getty)

There was also a spoof video of the president serenading his press secretary in a parody of Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline” in which he paid tribute to her regular clashes with journalists and mused about the possibility of hiring Nicki Minaj to replace her.

The host joked about Leavitt on Wednesday’s instalment, telling his studio audience, “Apparently, she’s moving on to an easier job working as the press secretary for Taylor Farms lettuce,” the business that health officials have pinpointed as the possible source of this summer’s explosive diarrhoea outbreak.

Fallon famously interviewed Trump – and ruffled his hair to prove it was real – in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election and has largely avoided attracting the president’s animosity in the same way his late-night competitors Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert have done.

However, Trump did tell him to “Be a man” after he later expressed regret over the hair stunt and said he had made a “mistake” by taking part in it.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”