Donald Trump named his White House press secretary on Friday, putting Karoline Leavitt, a 27-year-old troublemaker from his inner circle, in a position to aggressively defend him.

The job of the White House press secretary is generally to help inform the American people about presidential activities without betraying the boss’s trust.

“Karoline is smart, tough and has proven to be a very effective communicator. I have full confidence that she will excel on stage…,” the statement said.

The challenge for Leavitt will be to provide reliable information and gain credibility with reporters while maintaining strong loyalty to Trump. Leavitt is seen as a staunch and camera-ready advocate for Trump, quick on his feet and aggressively defending the president-elect in television interviews.

In a June interview on CNN’s This Morning, Leavitt got into a heated argument with host Kasie Hunt, criticizing Dana Bash and Jake Tapper for their “biased reporting” on Trump before the highly anticipated debate between him and Joe Biden. Bash and Tapper moderated that debate. Hunt abruptly ended that interview after Leavitt refused to be distracted.

Leavitt will be the youngest person ever to hold the title of White House press secretary. Ron Ziegler was previously the youngest press secretary at age 29 when Richard Nixon gave him the job in 1969.

A native of New Hampshire, Leavitt served as assistant press secretary during the latter part of Trump’s first term, from 2017 to 2021.

When Trump was defeated by Joe Biden in 2020, Leavitt became communications director for Republican U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, whom Trump has named as his U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Leavitt ran for a seat in the US House of Representatives from New Hampshire in 2022, winning the Republican primary. She lost the general election to Democrat Chris Pappas, but the experience seemed to give her valuable public speaking experience.

She joined Trump’s 2024 campaign and served as the chief spokesperson for the newly elected president’s transition team.

Trump had four press secretaries during his 2017-2021 term: Sean Spicer, Sarah Sanders, Stephanie Grisham and Kayleigh McEnany. Spicer took heat from the White House press corps in his first appearance in 2017 after falsely claiming that the crowd that gathered in Washington DC for Trump’s inauguration had been “the largest crowd ever to witness had been an inauguration, period, both personally and around the world.”

Spicer was replaced after just six months in the position, making his tenure the sixth shortest since the position was created in 1929, according to data from the White House Transition Project. The average term is just under three years.

Sanders, who is now the Republican governor of Arkansas, won praise from Trump for her pairing with the press corps.

After Sanders left, Trump turned to Grisham, who never held a briefing, which she said was at Trump’s direction. Grisham resigned after the events of January 6, 2021 and is now a sharp Trump critic.

Trump’s last chief spokesman in the White House was McEnany, who sparred with reporters during the pandemic year of 2020 and is now an on-air personality at Fox News.