The White House has not publicly named a permanent replacement for former press secretary Karoline Leavitt, but a surprise “guest” took over her duties late last week.
Vice President JD Vance stepped behind the briefing-room podium Thursday to deliver an update on several administration priorities.
The appearance was part of an interim arrangement in which senior administration officials are expected to rotate through White House briefings while President Donald Trump considers who will succeed Leavitt. Administration officials said before her departure that Trump had not settled on a replacement.
Vance opened Thursday’s briefing by highlighting the administration’s crackdown on what he described as fraudulent commercial-driver-license operations.
“We have taken over 2,000 fraudulent CDL mills out of business,” Vance said, arguing that the effort had made highways safer while protecting American trucking jobs.
Vance accused the previous administration of allowing unqualified immigrants to obtain credentials to operate commercial trucks and said the Trump administration’s anti-fraud campaign had helped remove improperly licensed drivers from the road.
He also said trucker wages had increased 7.5%, though he did not specify during the briefing the precise period or wage measure used to calculate that figure.
