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Some communications professionals might have used their PR savvy to come to the conclusion that sharing their wedding photos amid a constitutional crisis is, to put it lightly, a bad look. But not White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. Though she has been busy over the past few days vigorously defending President Donald Trump’s deportations of migrants under dubious legal terms, she has also, in her words, “finally found some time to post a few of my favorite pictures from one of my favorite days”—i.e., her recent wedding to Nicholas Riccio, a real estate developer 32 years her senior.
In January, the 27-year-old Leavitt joined the second Trump administration as press secretary—the youngest ever to serve in the role, it’s been widely noted—and her tenure thus far has been defined by a steady mix of ridiculous lies and outright hostility to journalists. She’s been front and center, defending every White House whim with the kind of telegenic if sometimes incoherent bombast that the president prefers at the press podium.
Then, on Monday, during the most serious test so far of the Trump administration’s executive authority and the American legal system, Leavitt posted a carousel of images from her wedding to Instagram. According to People, the nuptials took place in January, just “days before President Donald Trump’s second inauguration.” For the event’s location, Leavitt tagged Wentworth by the Sea Country Club, which is in her native New Hampshire. In the photos, she is wearing an updo and a long-sleeved, beaded white gown, and Riccio is in a black tux. He is 59 but actually looks young for his age, or maybe she just looks older than her 27 years—blame the Republican makeup. (I am particularly mesmerized by how her foot is positioned in the second of the photos; the effect is somehow “rom-com poster meets corpse.”)
Leavitt is still a relatively new major player in the Trump orbit, so this may be the first you’re hearing of her personal life and much older husband. She filled in some more details about the relationship last week on The Megyn Kelly Show, calling their love story “atypical.” After graduating from Saint Anselm College, in New Hampshire, where she was on the softball team, Leavitt worked as an assistant press secretary in the first Trump administration. In 2022 she ran for Congress in New Hampshire, winning the Republican nomination but ultimately losing the race. This is when she met Riccio, during a campaign event: “I was speaking. We met and we were acquainted as friends. And then we fell in love,” she told Kelly.
I have more questions about how that happened, but OK! The two got engaged in late 2023 and welcomed a son last summer, also named Nicholas. That same month, Trump was shot, which reportedly inspired Leavitt to skip maternity leave and get back to work. Less is known about Riccio, though People referred to him as a “millionaire,” and he has spoken about living on the streets for periods as a young man.
So if you didn’t know that the 27-year-old White House press secretary was married to a 59-year-old man, well, now you do. It will be another five years until Leavitt is the age her husband was when she was born, an interesting corollary to the whole “youngest White House press secretary ever” thing. But in this moment, that’s far from the most eyebrow-raising detail here. It’s possible Leavitt genuinely didn’t think it might be distasteful to crow about her wedding right now, but either way, yikes. The post suggests that, for her, this has been just another week of crushing it at work and sleeping great at night. A scary thought.
