Katie Zacharia leaving White House role less than five days into job
Her public debut as press secretary ended with a flurry of media criticism about her credentials and preparedness.
Key points
- Katie Zacharia is leaving as White House press secretary five days after her debut.
- Trump told reporters he advised her to reconsider the job.
- She admitted she did not pass the bar exam.
Katie Zacharia is leaving her role as White House press secretary just five days after her public debut. The announcement came hours after President Donald Trump told reporters he had advised her to reconsider the job.
Trump said he told her, “you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to,” and added that if he were her, he would reconsider. He said she had been treated “pretty nastily” by the media.
Briefing and credentials
Zacharia faced heavy criticism for her first press briefing on Tuesday, which lasted less than 15 minutes and included only three questions. She appeared visibly nervous, read talking points from a notebook and referred to her husband as the president.
After scrutiny, she admitted on Thursday that she did not pass the bar exam. She said she had practised international transaction law in China with the “appropriate credentials.”
you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to
— Donald Trump
Reaction and context
Zacharia praised Trump on X as “kind, wonderful, gracious, thoughtful, enthusiastic, and the most hardworking man” and said it had been an honour to work for him. Democrats seized on her departure, with House Democrat Hakeem Jeffries posting that “Maga extremists continue to fall apart.”
Her exit is the quickest among Trump’s White House press team. Anthony Scaramucci left as communications director after 10 days in Trump’s first term, and wrote on X that “records are made to be broken” but he took no pleasure in others’ pain.
