The White House briefing room. (Image: CabbageFuel / Wikimedia Commons — CC BY-SA 4.0)
White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia was pushed out Friday after less than a week in the job, following a series of blunders that turned her debut into a distraction for President Donald Trump.
Two US officials confirmed Zacharia was "let go" and is "transitioning out" of the position, after Fox News first reported her departure. NBC News reported she is expected to move into another role to be announced later.
Zacharia, a 41-year-old former conservative commentator and Trump Media communications adviser, was named to the job on October 9 and started Monday. Her first briefing on Tuesday lasted about 14 minutes: she slowly read a list of Trump's accomplishments, then took questions from just three outlets — Breitbart News, Fox News and the Daily Mail — before ending the event. The performance was widely mocked by media commentators.
She was then engulfed in questions about her legal background. Trump had described her as an attorney and she said she had practiced law, but it emerged she failed the California bar exam after earning her law degree from Pepperdine University in 2011 — and never retook it. "The results of the bar exam were inconsequential because I was already moving to a foreign country that didn't require it," she told USA Today. On Fox News' "Hannity," she confirmed: "Correct," she had not passed, and "I did not" retake it.
Earlier Friday, Trump himself signaled her fate to reporters. "I said, 'Katie, is this for you?'" he recounted. "I said, 'Katie, you don't have to do this'... I said to her, 'Honestly if I were you, I'd reconsider.'" He said the media had treated her "pretty nastily" and "very unfairly," but added of the job: "Maybe it's not for her."
In a social media statement Friday night, Zacharia said she was honored "to work for him," calling Trump "a kind, wonderful, gracious, thoughtful, enthusiastic, and the most hardworking man." She did not address what led to her dismissal.
The departure leaves Trump without his top public messenger just over two weeks before the November midterm elections. Zacharia had succeeded Karoline Leavitt, who left the role in August to spend time with her family and is now a Fox News contributor.