Katie Zacharia fired as White House press secretary after just five days
The White House has fired Katie Zacharia as press secretary after just five days on the job.
Speaking to reporters on the White House lawn hours ago, President Donald Trump said he told Zacharia she should move on.
White House press secretary Katie Zacharia walks out to speak with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room. AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson
He said he told her the negative press coverage was too much.
"They've been so nasty to her," he said.
"I said, to her, 'Honestly if I were you, I'd reconsider.'"
Trump said he was in no rush to replace her.
She may not be exiting the White House, with Fox News reporting she was "transitioning out" of her role.
Zacharia's tenure was disastrous.
She made one briefing as press secretary, lasting at the podium 14 minutes and taking questions from just three reporters.
During that briefing she was shaky and struggled to read the prepared remarks.
At one point, she described her husband as "my president" before correcting herself.
While press secretaries typically make daily briefings, she did not appear at the podium again.
Questions were then raised about her credentials.
Trump boards Marine One on Tuesday with Katie Zacharia and aide Natalie Harp. AP Photo/Alex Brandon
Though she had described herself as an attorney, it was revealed she had failed the bar exam.
On Tuesday she told reporters that she passed the bar exam when she was in China, which was not true.
She indicated yesterday she had failed the bar exam because she was distracted by her pending wedding and move to China.
“We just said, ‘I’ll take the bar and see what happens’,” she said.
“The results are somewhat inconsequential because I knew I wouldn’t need the bar in China.“
Her social media history showed her promoting debunked conspiracy theories making wild allegations.
"The radical left Hollywood elitists are sick pedo cannibals. Change my mind," she wrote on Truth Social in 2022.
Katie Zacharia aboard Air Force One with boxer Floyd Mayweather. AP Photo/Alex Brandon
She also sang the praises of Robert David Steele, a conspiracy theorist who believed NASA had a colony of kidnapped children on Mars.
She was also actively engaged with QAnon conspiracists on Truth Social.
Zacharia’s brief tenure in the high-profile job breaks the record held by White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci, who was fired after just 11 days.
Scaramucci himself couldn't help weighing in.
"Records are made to be broken," he wrote on X.
"But I take no pleasure in other people's pain."
He then addressed Zacharia directly.
“Dear@katiezacharia — speaking as the world’s leading expert on short White House tenures: turn off the news and go enjoy your family,” Scaramucci wrote.
"In time you’ll realise that the Universe did you a major favour."
White House press secretary Katie Zacharia was fired after just five days. AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson
Republican Senator John Kennedy said he understood the president’s decision to have her step down.
"I'm sorry Ms Zacharia had to go through this. She seemed like a nice person," Kennedy said.
"But she did not cover herself in glory in her first performance."
Democratic Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett was less forgiving.
“In less than a week, Trump’s newest lying mouthpiece was fired,” she wrote on Bluesky.
“She was never an attorney. She never passed the bar, and from what we’ve seen, reading seems to be a struggle for her too.
“As a licensed attorney, I had to earn my credentials. The American people deserve QUALIFIED public servants.”
Zacharia was Trump's sixth press secretary, a record number.
While press secretaries rarely hold onto the job for long, their tenures under Trump have been unusually brief.
Sean Spicer, Stephanie Grisham and Kayleigh McEnany were in the job for less than a year.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Karoline Leavitt both left after less than two years.
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