Katie Zacharia is out as White House press secretary after less than a week in the job.
A White House official confirmed her exit on Friday.
Her departure follows middling reviews for her debut press briefing Tuesday that lasted just 14 minutes. That was followed by a stream of coverage on her references to herself as a lawyer, even though she did not pass the California bar exam. She was pressed on those details in an appearance on Fox News’ Hannity on Thursday night and Fox & Friends this morning.
After her blitz of media appearances over the past 24 hours, President Donald Trump indicated that a shakeup was in the works.
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“Katie has been treated very badly by the media,” he told reporters earlier, as he departed the White House for a midterm campaign swing. “Very very badly, very unfairly. And I just spoke to her about it. I said, ‘Katie, is this for you?’ Because she’s been treated very rough.”
The president noted that the hosts of Hannity and Fox & Friends were “a little bit tough” on Zacharia. But their grilling signaled that even Trump-friendly figures had concerns that she was inflating her legal credentials.
Trump told reporters, “She has been treated, I would say, pretty nastily, and I said to Katie… ‘You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.’ She said, ‘This is a lot tougher.’ I said, ‘Welcome to the world of Trump.’”
Trump said that he told her, “Honestly, if I were you, I would reconsider. You think about it.”
Zacharia, a conservative commentator who made appearances on outlets like Fox News and Newsmax, was the surprise choice to succeed Karoline Leavitt, who left in August. Although Zacharia had gained visibility as a staunch defender of the president, she was not as well known as other figures said to be contenders for the job, including Scott Jennings, an analyst at CNN.
On Thursday, Zacharia seemed to acknowledge she was not as prepared as she could have been for Tuesday’s briefing. In his interview with her, Hannity noted that her debut was “widely panned.” She noted that she had only started in the job Monday and that the briefing materials were only finalized at 8 a.m. on Tuesday.
She also defended her media appearances in which she repeatedly referred to herself as a lawyer, saying that she consulted with a number of people over whether she could use that term, but not attorney at law.
Zacharia’s short tenure calls to mind that of Anthony Scaramucci, who lasted for 10 days in the job of White House Communications Director under Trump in 2017.
He wrote on X, “Records are made to be broken. But I take no pleasure in other people’s pain.”
