White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia Leaving After Five Days
White House press secretary Katie Zacharia is leaving her position after five days, a White House official confirmed Friday. President Donald Trump said he had spoken with Zacharia earlier that day and suggested she reconsider whether the role was right for her. Asked whether he would keep her in the job, Trump said he would let her decide.
Zacharia, a conservative commentator and former employee of Trump Media & Technology Group, began work Monday. Her appointment followed the departure of former press secretary Karoline Leavitt in late August. A White House official, speaking anonymously about the staffing change, described Zacharia as “transitioning” out of the position.
The departure follows criticism of Zacharia’s first and only White House press briefing on Tuesday. She ended the briefing after taking questions from three reporters, spending less than six minutes answering them. During the session, Zacharia said U.S. Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle had been asked to step down. The news came amid other departures of senior female administration officials.
Questions about Zacharia’s legal background also drew attention. In a Thursday interview, Fox News host Sean Hannity asked about reports that she had not passed a bar exam despite having described herself as a lawyer. Zacharia said she distinguished between “lawyer” and “attorney.” When Hannity cited social media posts in which she used “attorney,” she said she believed they were retweets and that she had corrected the record.
Trump said Friday that Zacharia had been treated harshly, including by the media. Earlier in the week, White House communications director Steven Cheung had publicly praised her work. Zacharia’s tenure was shorter than Anthony Scaramucci’s stint as White House communications director in 2017. Her exit comes as Trump heads to Georgia to campaign for Republicans ahead of the November midterm elections.