Katie Zacharia Fired as White House Press Secretary After Five Days

Katie Zacharia is exiting her job as White House press secretary after just five days in the position, according to reports citing multiple administration officials. That makes Zacharia the shortest-tenured White House press secretary in U.S. history.

President Donald Trump signaled on Friday that he might replace Zacharia and told reporters outside the White House that he had advised her to reconsider whether she needs the role. The swift departure caps a turbulent week that began with her appointment on Friday, Oct. 9, to replace Karoline Leavitt, who left the administration in August.

Credentials and the Briefing Room Debut

Zacharia started at the White House on Monday and delivered her first press briefing on Tuesday, a 14-to-15-minute appearance where she took questions from just three news outlets: Breitbart, Fox News and the Daily Mail. During the briefing, she briefly confused her spouse with her president, telling reporters, So my president — excuse me, my husband — is out here.

Rather than focusing on the administration's agenda, her tenure was immediately consumed by questions regarding her legal background. Trump had described Zacharia as an "attorney" in his Truth Social announcement, and Zacharia holds both a law degree and a bachelor's degree from Pepperdine University. However, reports from the Wall Street Journal and NBC News revealed that while she sat for the California bar exam after graduating, she did not pass.

Reuters reported that it could not find records showing Zacharia was registered as an attorney or member of the bar in any U.S. state or the District of Columbia. When asked by a reporter on the South Lawn where she passed the bar, Zacharia twice replied, When I moved to China. She later told the New York Times that she misheard the question over the sound of Marine One.

The Defense and the Watchdog Complaint

Zacharia subsequently explained that she moved to China with her husband for his job at an American private equity firm, where she worked on international transaction law for a Chinese law firm's international-practice team. Speaking to the conservative outlet Real America's Voice, she acknowledged that she did not pass the bar exam because she was distracted by her impending marriage and move, adding that she did not retake it because the results are somewhat inconsequential because I knew I wouldn't need the bar in China.

Legal experts consulted by the New York Times noted that while law school graduates may debate describing themselves as lawyers before passing the bar, they cannot call themselves attorneys, serve as general counsel, or work as associates without a license. On Wednesday, a nonprofit watchdog group called Campaign for Accountability filed a complaint with the California bar asking it to investigate whether Zacharia violated state law by repeatedly holding herself out as a lawyer.

White House spokesperson Steven Cheung dismissed the watchdog group on social media, calling it a radical leftist-organization run by rabid numbskulls suffering from a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.

Departure and Official Confusion

As the scrutiny mounted, President Trump addressed reporters outside the White House on Friday, defending his press secretary against what he described as brutal media treatment.

I told her, honestly, if I were you, I'd reconsider... Katie, do you need this? I don’t think you need this.

President Donald Trump, via Yahoo.com / Time.com

Trump added that he told Zacharia, I think you’re better off being happy and I don’t think you could ever be happy in this job, and noted that he would discuss the matter further with her following a campaign rally in Georgia. Shortly after the president's remarks, multiple outlets including the New York Times, citing three people familiar with the matter, reported that Zacharia had been fired, while a senior White House official told Fox News that she was "transitioning out" of her role. The Blast reported that comparisons were drawn to Anthony Scaramucci, whose 10-day stint as White House communications director in 2017 became a benchmark for short-lived appointments.

The White House has not publicly clarified whether Zacharia formally resigned or was dismissed. The 42-year-old California native and mother of four previously served as a senior communications adviser to Trump Media and Technology Group and as a deputy assistant secretary and spokesperson for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

President Trump stated he would speak further with Zacharia upon his return from Georgia.