Trump Trip, 14-Minute Briefing and Exam Admission: Inside Katie Zacharia’s 5 Days as Press Secretary Before She Was Fired | Today’s news
Katie Zachary’s short tenure as White House press secretary ended just five days after she took over, with Reuters citing two officials on Friday that she had been fired. Her departure followed a rocky first appearance in front of reporters, questions about her legal credentials and growing scrutiny of her professional background.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that he had advised her to reconsider the job, abruptly ending her tenure as the administration’s chief spokesman.
Her departure came less than a week after Trump announced her appointment on October 9. Zacharia, who previously worked as a communications adviser at the Trump Media & Technology Group and briefly served as a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, was tapped to succeed Caroline Leavitt. Her first official day in the role was Monday, October 12.
“President Trump is a kind, wonderful, kind, thoughtful, enthusiastic and hardworking man. I wish more Americans appreciated him. No one will ever make America as great as he has and continues to do. It was an honor to work for him,” Zacharia wrote on X.
October 13: 14-minute briefing and awkward exchange
Zacharia held her first and only White House press briefing on Tuesday, October 13. The appearance lasted approximately 14 minutes, during which she asked only three journalists representing Breitbart, Fox News and the Daily Mail. Her speech attracted criticism, with reports describing her as nervous and appearing to depend heavily on her notes.
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She stumbled over some remarks during the briefing and briefly referred to her husband as “my president” before correcting herself. She also talked about the administration’s accomplishments, including jobs, border security and energy production.
Zacharia is traveling with Trump
That same day, Zacharia accompanied Trump on his trip to Alaska. As reporters questioned her legal qualifications on the South Lawn of the White House, Trump turned to her and asked in which state she took the bar exam. Her response, “When I moved to China,” raised further questions about whether she was licensed to practice law in the United States.
14-15 October: Questions for the bar exam are increasing
Scrutiny of Zacharia’s legal background intensified after reports emerged that she had not obtained a license to practice law in the US. She graduated from Pepperdine University School of Law in 2011 and took the California bar exam that year, but failed. The News also found no record of her being licensed in other US states where she lived.
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Zacharia later told The New York Times that she misheard the question during the exchange with reporters, saying, “That’s all I heard over the sound of Marine One.” She claimed to have worked in international transactional law after moving to China with her husband.
In an interview with conservative commentator Sean Hannity on Thursday, October 15, she admitted that she failed the bar exam. She explained that she had been preparing for the California test before plans to move to China for her husband’s job changed her circumstances. She also defended how she described her professional background.
“I was very careful how I went about it. I never came across as someone who is a lawyer,” Zacharia said in an interview with conservative commentator Jack Posobiec, CBS News reported.
She also tried to explain away her short first briefing, saying she had limited time to prepare. She said in an interview that she had been on the job less than eight hours when she received the instruction book Tuesday morning.
October 16: Trump advises her to reconsider
Zachariah’s term ended on Friday, October 16, after Trump publicly indicated that he had recommended that she step down from the post. Speaking to reporters before leaving for a rally in Georgia, the president said he asked if she needed the job and suggested she reconsider.
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“I told her, ‘I think it’s better if you’re happy.’ Frankly, if I were you, I’d change my mind,” Trump said. He also said the media had treated her harshly and he wanted her to have a good life.
Trump dismissed suggestions that he fired Zacharias, saying he wanted her to be happy and that she would have to decide what she wanted to do next.
