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Leavitt has said that she believed Trump was the legitimate winner of the 2020 presidential election and that “irregularities and chaos” occurred as a result of precautions against the COVID-19 pandemic, but that Joe Biden was certified in the Electoral College vote count.[44] According to The Washington Post in March 2025, Leavitt privately believed that Trump lost the election.[9] Leavitt denounced the January 6 Capitol attack, but said she did not believe that Trump incited it.[44] Tweets that she posted after the attack praised Vice President Mike Pence, who refused to certify the fake electors provided by Trump, and Eugene Goodman, a Capitol Police officer who led rioters away from the Senate chamber. Both tweets were later deleted.[45]
Leavitt holding her son while typing in May 2025
Leavitt is a practicing Roman Catholic.[46]
In December 2023, Leavitt became engaged to Nicholas Riccio, a real estate developer from New Hampshire who is 32 years her senior. They were introduced in 2022 at a restaurant during Leavitt’s congressional campaign.[47] Leavitt has described Riccio as “an introvert” and her “opposite”.[48] Their son was born in July 2024.[49] She returned to work within a week of his birth, on the day of Thomas Crooks’s attempted assassination of Trump.[9] Leavitt married Riccio in January 2025, days before Trump’s second inauguration.[47] A photograph of Leavitt feeding her son with a bottle while working drew attention on social media in May 2025.[50] In December 2025, Leavitt announced that she was pregnant with a second child, making her the first pregnant White House press secretary.[51] Her daughter was born May 1, 2026.[52]
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