Leavitt is leaving the podium. Trump is already auditioning the next one.

Karoline Leavitt is leaving the White House podium at the end of August. President Trump said so on Aug. 12: more time with her children, a decision he said he understood. On Friday he stood with her at Joint Base Andrews and told reporters he would miss her. That is a sendoff. It is not a successor.

A reporter had said he would miss her. Trump agreed, then kept her next to him while he waved headlines. Later, at the South Carolina rally for Darline Graham, he turned it into a bit: she just had a baby, he had learned she loves the baby more than Donald Trump, and he was very angry. That is a rally line. The job still empties at month's end.

Trump's Aug. 12 post called her one of his most trusted aides and said she would keep serving as an outside adviser. She has said she will join MAGA Inc., the pro-Trump PAC, and travel with him to Dallas in September for the Republican midterm convention. The White House has not named a replacement. A senior official this week called the search an “open book.” Asked about CNN's Scott Jennings as a name in the mix, Trump said, “Scott Jennings is good.” That is not an appointment.