Some Washington goodbyes come with cake and a farewell speech. Others arrive as a surprise social media post days after a political gut punch. That’s the kind of week Donald Trump has had, and former White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt couldn’t stay quiet. The Fox News contributor rushed online to honor the woman she calls her “friend and former boss.” The tribute came just after the president abruptly removed her from one of Washington’s most powerful jobs. Former White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt praised former chief of staff Susie Wiles after Trump replaced her. (Photo: Celal Gunes/ via Getty Images) After weeks of swirling replacement rumors, it finally came true. Critics say Leavitt’s heartfelt sendoff tells you everything about where this White House is headed. The latest White House shake-up came straight from the top. In a Truth Social post on Friday, Nov. 6, Trump announced that Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller will become White House chief of staff on Monday, Nov. 9. Trump Derails His Own Meeting With Bizarre Ramble About Iran — Susie Wiles Looks Mortified, Tries to Correct Him Three Times — Cameras Catch the Brutal Slip Everyone Heard ‘Is She Recording?’: White House Scrambles After Trump’s ‘Staged’ Command Center Goes Viral — Susie Wiles Close-Up Triggers ‘Security Breach’ Panic Susie Wiles had run his West Wing since he returned to office in January 2025. She e“will be moving over to the Trump Political Operation.” The president didn’t spell out what exactly that new role actually involves. The timing is hard to ignore. The announcement landed days after Republicans lost control of Congress in the midterm elections. Wiles was the first woman ever to hold the chief of staff job. She is also the longest-serving chief across both of Trump’s terms. He cycled through four of them in his first term alone. The exit may also have been less of a friendly reshuffle than Trump made it sound. A senior White House source claimed that Wiles resigned Thursday night, CNBC reported. Wiles confirmed on X that Friday was her last day, calling the job “the honor of a lifetime.” Meanwhile, Trump brushed it off, telling reporters, “Sometimes in life you have to make moves.” That’s a dramatic turnaround from just three weeks earlier, when Trump insisted there was “zero chance” he’d replace Wiles. Pressed on what changed, the president offered little more than “I wanted to make a change. He added that Miller has “been with me from the beginning” and “gets it.” In her final message Wiles wrote on X, “Today is my last day as White House Chief of Staff. Serving President Trump in the White House has been the honor of a lifetime.” Leavitt was among the first loyalists to speak up. “Susie Wiles is one of the kindest and toughest people I’ve ever met,” she wrote on X. She credited her former boss with powering Trump’s 2024 comeback and steering the White House “even while battling breast cancer.” Then she pivoted, hard. “President Trump made the perfect choice in naming my dear friend Stephen Miller to succeed her,” Leavitt continued, insisting no one is “more loyal, more hardworking” than the hardline architect of Trump’s mass deportation agenda. She closed with a startling admission from someone who spent 19 months at the podium insisting everything was going perfectly: “Now is the time to fix what’s not working.” That message, coming from a woman who walked away from the White House in August to spend more time with her two young children, didn’t sit well with everyone. It also raised an awkward question: who is actually doing her old job? Trump tapped Katie Zacharia, a communications adviser at his media company, to replace Leavitt in October. Zacharia lasted just five days amid backlash over her law credentials, and Trump claimed he told her, “if I were you, I’d reconsider.” No permanent successor has been named since, even as Leavitt pops up in an Instagram clip with Fox News Now’s Kate DePetro, explaining what it takes to become the youngest press secretary in history. Critics noticed. One X user fired back at Leavitt directly, writing that her defense of the president “after running away from the White House for ‘family reasons’ indicates you couldn’t take the drama either.” The same critic called it “ironic” that Leavitt was defending Trump from the outside “when he still hasn’t found a new press secretary.” Others zeroed in on the promotion itself. “His policies are what cost you the midterms, so you promote him,” one person wrote. Another joked, “I love that instead of learning your lessons, you double down. ‘28 here we come!” A third summed it up in four words: “Talk about tone deaf.” The pile-on wasn’t limited to social media, though. In a Joe Rogan interview that aired hours before Wiles’ exit was announced, Calley Means, a former adviser to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said he quit over alleged corruption in the administration and put Wiles at the center of it. “We all know things are corrupt and bad,” Means said, claiming Cabinet secretaries spend meetings “constantly worrying about how to get on Susie’s good side,” Mediaite reported. This isn’t the first time Leavitt’s life after the White House has drawn side-eye. In October, she snapped at a fan who asked why she left the West Wing only to keep working, insisting she’d been clocking more than 60 hours a week. That came shortly after news of her move to Fox News, where she now offers commentary across the network. Zacharia’s short-lived run had also sparked comparisons to Leavitt, with the briefing room turnover becoming its own punchline as the midterms approached. And Miller’s big promotion comes the same day a new report revealed the moment Trump realized Miller’s immigration agenda had gone too far. For a White House that suddenly says it wants to “fix what’s not working,” critics say handing the keys to the man behind its most unpopular policies is a strange place to start. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Kate DePetro (@katedepetro) Karoline Leavitt Rushes to Defend Her ‘Friend and Former Boss’ After Trump’s Post-Midterm Shake-Up ...read more read less