Karoline Leavitt, Maha Mom, On Whole Milk, Vaccines And Food Babe

President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed a bill allowing public schools to offer whole milk and 2 percent milk, a reversal of an Obama-era initiative to encourage skim milk.

The move was cheered by MAHA moms, a contingent important to the White House because of their role in expanding the MAGA coalition.

“There's a lot of formerly Democrat women who have joined the Republican Party or have joined MAGA or MAHA in large part because of these issues and the president's decisions on [them],” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, a self-proclaimed MAHA mom, who recently announced she is expecting her second child in May.

Leavitt, 28, is the youngest person to serve as press secretary and first to serve while pregnant.

While some public health experts say the jury is still out on whether whole milk is healthier than skim milk, many experts agree that it’s time to make the switch and a growing body of research highlights many benefits of whole-fat dairy.

“For years, Washington treated fat, especially saturated fat, as the enemy,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Wednesday. “Even though science has never shown that whole milk harms children.”

The Trump administration has in its first year remade dietary guidelines, pushed foodmakers to eliminate artificial dyes, revamped the vaccine schedule and encouraged states to prohibit SNAP recipients from purchasing unhealthy foods like soda and candy.

While the president has not checked every box — MAHA adherents would like the administration to take a harder line on pesticides, for example — Trump and his aides appear to believe they have fulfilled their end of the bargain that helped get them elected in 2024.

When HHS remade the childhood vaccine schedule, which some public health officials fear will have lasting and damaging consequences, Trump posted that “many Americans, especially the ’MAHA Moms,’ have been praying for these COMMON SENSE reforms for many years.”

Leavitt spoke with POLITICO on Wednesday about being a MAHA mom and the policies that she believes are reaching voters.

This conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

What is your MAHA mom origin story? What was the first moment in motherhood in which you found yourself pushing back on the system?

“MAHA is not just a slogan, it is a lifestyle. And it's a movement of grassroots women and men, moms and dads who just want what's right for their kids, and don't want big industries to be making decisions, but want individuals, families and parents to be making those decisions for future generations. So I'm very proud to work for a president who understands the movement and has actually made real policy changes with respect to it as promised.”

“I think when you become a mother, your whole perspective on life and everything changes, and there's nothing more sacred or precious than your innocent baby, and there's nothing more precious in the world than the love between a mother and her child. And to experience that firsthand really makes you question every decision even more than you would for yourself, because you want to do what's best and what's right for your child. And so for me, the MAHA moment was just becoming a mom and obviously wanting what's best for my children.”

Why do you think MAHA emerged as a force or political identity?

“Well, because, unfortunately, our government for many years before President Trump came into the Oval Office, has been held captive by big industries that are pushing their agendas onto policy making and into our laws. We have not up until now, with President Trump, had a leader and an administration that is willing to break with those big industries to do truly what is right for the individuals in our country, to make our country healthier. It is a devastating reality that America is the richest and most developed country in the world, yet one of the sickest nations in the world.”

What do you personally make of the announcements on food and vaccines HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made in the past few weeks?

“It's amazing, and it's based on and rooted in common sense. Our children should be eating whole foods that are freshly sourced, not processed food. They should be eating more protein, not less. They should be drinking whole milk, not skim. These are basic common sense understandings that moms have had for many years, but the government is finally acknowledging them.

With respect to vaccinations, the president and the secretary firmly believe in giving parents a choice — no mandates. As a mother, again, you want to be in the driver's seat of your child's health and life, and President Trump and Secretary Kennedy believe that moms and dads should be making these decisions, not big industries who are profiting from those decisions. The changes to the childhood vaccination schedule are very powerful — it's a powerful change in the right direction.”

You think parents should be able to do their own research?

“Absolutely, and if you look, [it] doesn't take long to dive into social media to find there are millions of women and moms and dads across the country who are extremely grateful for the vaccination changes that have been made by this administration, because they have been screaming from the rooftops at big industry and the big federal government for years about wanting to change America's childhood vaccination schedule, but no politician had the courage to do it until President Trump.”

The administration has been talking about reducing sugar in all diets, but especially children’s. What would you say to parents who feel overwhelmed and by the time the kid is dressed and they take a bath, and eat their carrots, feel like they should maybe just offer them a cookie as a reward?

“I mean, again, every parent knows their child best, and every mother knows their baby best. But I think the new dietary guidelines finally give parents a really solid pathway to knowing what the daily lifestyle should be, or the foundation for the daily lifestyle and eating habits they should be encouraging their children to have.

And it's not always easy. I mean, my son is a toddler now, so he's pickier, and he knows that if he points to something in the fridge, he's signaling to us that he wants that instead of what we're feeding him. So not every day is going to be perfect in parenting, but certainly, I think the administration updating the guidelines in the best interest of our children gives parents a better foundation to make those decisions for their kid.”

Is there anyone online or influencers who you follow?

“I follow a lot of MAHA influencers and a lot of mom influencers. My whole algorithm on Instagram is mom content, so I follow a lot of them, but I do love Food Babe. She is great because she shows graphics of foods in the United States versus in European countries. And she provides, in my opinion, great content in recommendations on what to eat, not just for my kid, but for me too.”

What does President Trump personally make of the MAHA food policies and advice? Kennedy just said on the Katie Miller podcast: “the president has the most unhinged eating habits.”

“The president has his own personal habits, but he understands the movement and the power behind all of these moms who have united in pushing for a real public health change, and he fully supports it and gets it. He's also a huge believer in choice for parents in parental decision making, whether it comes to education or health. He knows that parents are the best people who are best suited to make decisions for their kids, and he fully empowers that mentality.”

Secretaries Kennedy and Rollins spoke recently about increasing access to healthy foods. Tell us more.

[The president signed a bill Wednesday allowing schools to offer whole milk.] “It is a change from the Obama administration, when Obama signed legislation to phase out whole milk in schools and to encourage just low fat and skim milk, which we know is not what's best for school-aged children. They're used to drinking whole milk from when they're babies, and they should continue that. So this administration is encouraging the comeback of whole milk. This is like our third big MAHA rollout since the beginning of the new year. So I think it shows between the childhood vaccination schedule updates, the dietary guidelines, and now the signing of the whole milk bill. There's three huge promises the president is making and keeping, and we're not even out of January yet.”

Do you feel like there's more Republican voters or Independents or Democrats in this movement?

“I think it's a bipartisan movement, which is one of the things that makes it so amazing. There's a lot of formerly Democrat women who have joined the Republican Party or have joined MAGA or MAHA in large part because of these issues and the president's decisions on it.”

Do you think that this is a kitchen table issue, just like the economy or like unemployment rate? You think this is really important for people?

“Well, I mean, definitely it is for moms. Like I told you when I hang out with my mom friends, or, you go to any mom group, or you have co-workers who are moms, as I do here in the White House talk about your kids. You talk about their eating habits, their sleeping habits, their just daily lifestyles and how to make them better. And so these are, all of these things are constant conversations amongst women and their children.”

Polling shows that the vaccine issue is controversial. Some people really love the reduction in the number of recommendations in the childhood vaccine schedule, but some people feel differently about it. Do you think that this is an issue?

“I would point out, and this is extremely important to include in your story, is the president believes in choice. That goes for parents who maybe want less vaccinations than the previous schedule, required or recommended. It also is true of parents who want to stick with the old vaccination schedule, or even want more vaccinations for their children. If parents still want these vaccinations, they will still be covered by their insurance. That's something the administration is keeping intact, so nobody is being stripped of that.”