After less than a week on the job, Katie Zacharia has been ousted from her position as the White House press secretary. According to a senior administration official, Zacharia will transition into a new role to be announced at a later date.
Zacharia left her position the same way she entered it: swiftly. Throughout her five days on the job, she spent a total of 14 minutes in the press briefing room, taking three questions from predominantly conservative media outlets. During a press briefing, she stumbled through prepared notes that highlighted President Donald Trump’s accomplishments, making a notable mistake when she called her husband “the president.” The exchange was soon followed by a plethora of questions about her legal credentials.
In 2011, Zacharia graduated from Pepperdine University’s law school and failed the California bar exam that same year. She never took a U.S. bar exam or passed one in any state. She claimed the results of the bar exam were “somewhat inconsequential” because she knew she would be moving out of the country where she would work in international transaction law. She has since described herself as a lawyer, and President Trump called her “an attorney” in a social media post last week announcing her role in his administration.
When asked by reporters on the White House South Lawn which state she passed the bar in, she replied, “When I moved to China.”
Zacharia did not pass the bar exam in China, and instead worked as an international legal consultant/associate at Zhong Lun Law Firm in Beijing. She later claimed it was a misunderstanding of the question and admitted she had not passed any bar exam.
President Trump publicly stated on Friday that he spoke with her and advised her to reconsider whether to remain in position because of the heavy pressure from the media, leading to her quick transition out of the role.
“I just spoke to her about it. I said, ‘Katie, is this for you?Because honestly, you don’t need this,’” Trump said outside the White House, adding about her decision to accept the role, “‘Honestly, if I were you, I’d reconsider.’”
Though President Trump publicly insisted he had not formally fired her, Zacharia was reportedly forced out of her role as press secretary. She later expressed her gratitude to President Trump in a statement Friday evening, saying “it was an honor to work for him.”
“Thank you President Trump for the distinguished privilege of serving as White House Press Secretary,” she said in an X post. “Serving President Trump and the American people at this critical 250-year mark is the honor of a lifetime.”
With the midterms just weeks away, the Trump administration wants the conversation to be focused on their core platform and achievements to win over voters. Instead, the swift hiring and firing of Zacharia has forced the administration into damage control.
Zacharia’s sudden exit will leave a chief White House communications role vacant less than three weeks before the midterm elections. Without a designated voice at the podium, the responsibility falls back on President Trump to act as his own press secretary.
Ultimately, the president has indicated that he is in “no rush” to name a permanent replacement, meaning the administration will likely rely on a temporary setup or allow Trump to anchor the messaging himself through rallies and social meda as the midterms close.
