Katie Zacharia is leaving as White House press secretary days after Trump named her, following a rocky first briefing and questions over her bar exam status. Her stint is shorter than Scaramucci's.
Katie Zacharia is leaving her post as White House press secretary, barely a week after President Donald Trump announced her appointment, following a shaky first briefing and growing questions about whether she holds a law licence. The White House said she is "transitioning out" of the role, while The New York Times and other outlets described the move as a firing.
Speaking to reporters on the South Lawn before leaving for a rally in Georgia on Friday, Trump said he had told Zacharia she was treated unfairly by the media and that, in his view, she should reconsider the job. He said the two would speak again after his return. A Trump adviser told CNN that she would leave the White House within days. Trump named her on October 9 to succeed Karoline Leavitt, who left the role at the end of August. Zacharia, 41, had been a senior communications adviser at Trump Media & Technology Group since June and had earlier spent two months in a public affairs role at the Department of Homeland Security. Her first briefing on October 13 lasted about 14 minutes and took only three questions.
Scrutiny focused on her description of herself as a lawyer. Zacharia graduated from Pepperdine University law school in 2011, but neither she nor the White House has offered evidence that she passed a bar exam in any US state or in China, where she worked at a large law firm. Asked by reporters where she had passed the bar, she began an answer about moving to China that trailed off. On Thursday, she told Real America's Voice that she had registered for the exam but was distracted by a move to China, adding that she was careful to call herself a lawyer rather than an attorney. AFP reported that she seemed to acknowledge she had failed. The Campaign for Accountability asked the California Bar Association to investigate, stating that using the title without a licence is a crime in California. White House communications director Steven Cheung had earlier called her uniquely qualified for the job.
Her tenure is shorter than that of Anthony Scaramucci, who lasted 10 days as communications director in Trump's first term. Scaramucci wrote on X that records are made to be broken but he took no pleasure in another person's pain. The exit comes as Republicans prepare for midterm elections next month.
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