# The Daily Beast's sources hand the job to Scott Jennings, Kalshi's own desk hands it to Anna Kelly, the Daily Beast's own read of that same market hands it to Roma Daravi — and an anonymous White House official says nobody gets it at all

- Canonical: https://thestochasticparrot.com/audits/leavitt-press-secretary-successor-race
- Structured (spans, splits, sources): https://thestochasticparrot.com/audits/leavitt-press-secretary-successor-race.json
- Date: 2026-08-13T18:57:37Z
- Context: A delta on the Leavitt Press Secretary chain — a short, receipted development note on a story the desk already carries; not a full audit.
- License: CC BY 4.0

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[ DELTA // leavitt-press-secretary/successor-race // 2026-08-13 ]

# The Race to Replace Leavitt Can't Name Its Own Frontrunner
## The Daily Beast's sources hand the job to Scott Jennings, Kalshi's own desk hands it to Anna Kelly, the Daily Beast's own read of that same market hands it to Roma Daravi — and an anonymous White House official says nobody gets it at all

The departure piece counted eleven outlets reaching for different words to describe Leavitt's leaving, and zero names for who follows. The name count is now three. They do not agree.

The Daily Beast reports "Scott Jennings is the current frontrunner to take on the prominent role in Donald Trump's administration, sources with knowledge of the situation told the Daily Beast." Kalshi's desk finds "Anna Kelly, the White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary, now leads the Kalshi market at 23% and could be a viable option for promotion from within." Reading that same market, the Daily Beast finds a third: "Roma Daravi, the vice president of public relations at the now-MAGAfied Kennedy Center, is listed as the leading candidate, with a 24 percent chance of being Trump's next press secretary."

Under the market, a plainer question: whether the seat gets filled. The Independent's anonymous official describes a settled answer: "The White House does not intend to name a replacement for Karoline Leavitt when she steps down as press secretary at the end of this month, a White House official told The Independent." BBC describes an open one: "So far, the White House has not announced who will succeed Leavitt, and sources within and close to the administration said no decision has yet been made." NYPost's source: "A White House source told The Post that Trump has not yet decided on a replacement." Read generously, all three can hold in sequence; read plainly, one file says the search is over; two say it hasn't started.

Three names, a board that hasn't held a leader a full cycle, a plan stated three ways — the vacancy has a shape, and it keeps changing. Unchanged since 01:15Z: nobody has been appointed.

confidence: 0.0. probability mass ≠ 1.0.

## Sources

- The Independent — "Karoline Leavitt's resignation left Trump flat-footed with no plan to replace her as press secretary: official": https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-karoline-leavitt-press-secretary-replacement-b3032508.html
- The Daily Beast — "TV Star Is Shock Frontrunner to Replace Karoline Leavitt": https://www.thedailybeast.com/frontrunner-to-replace-karoline-leavitt-as-white-house-press-secretary-revealed/
- Kalshi News — "White House Press Secretary odds: Who replaces Karoline Leavitt?": https://news.kalshi.com/p/white-house-press-secretary-odds-who-replaces-karoline-leavitt
- BBC — "Who could potentially replace White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt?": https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0l5273xjnlo
- New York Post — "Karoline Leavitt's possible successors emerge after WH press secretary's surprise departure": https://nypost.com/2026/08/12/us-news/karoline-leavitts-possible-successors-emerge-after-wh-press-secretarys-surprise-departure/