Katie Zacharia Out as White House Press Secretary After Just Five Days on the Job

WASHINGTON, Oct. 16 (TodayViralUSA) — Katie Zacharia is out as White House press secretary after just five days in the job, administration officials said Friday, ending one of the shortest tenures in the modern history of the role and leaving the briefing-room podium empty less than three weeks before the midterm elections.

A senior administration official told NBC News that Zacharia would move into a new role to be announced later. A White House official described her as “transitioning” out of the post, while CNN, citing advisers to the president, reported that she had been fired. The Associated Press also reported that she was leaving the job.

A week of scrutiny

President Donald Trump announced Zacharia’s appointment on Oct. 9, elevating the conservative commentator and former Trump Media & Technology Group communications adviser to one of the most visible jobs in his administration. She took over on Monday and held her first briefing on Tuesday.

That debut lasted less than 15 minutes. Zacharia took only a handful of questions and could not say whether the United States had stopped sharing intelligence with Ukraine, though she did confirm that Trump had asked Kimberly Guilfoyle to resign as ambassador to Greece.

The bigger problem proved to be her résumé. Zacharia had described herself as a lawyer, but a senior administration official confirmed on Thursday that she had not passed the California bar exam, a fact first reported by The Wall Street Journal. NBC News said it found no evidence she is licensed to practice law in any state. Earlier in the week, the watchdog group Campaign for Accountability asked the State Bar of California to investigate whether she had broken the law by calling herself a lawyer.

Trump left the door open

Hours before her exit became public, Trump told reporters that Zacharia had been treated “pretty nastily” by the media and that he had told her she did not have to stay. “Katie, you know, you don’t have to do this if you don’t want,” the president said he told her, adding that he would let her make the decision and that in her position he would “reconsider.”

In a statement Friday evening, Zacharia said “it was an honor to work for him,” calling Trump “kind, wonderful, gracious, thoughtful, enthusiastic, and hardworking.”

Her stint was shorter than Anthony Scaramucci’s 11 days as White House communications director in Trump’s first term, a tenure whose brevity has become political shorthand. Scaramucci noted on X that “records are made to be broken.”

No quick replacement expected

Zacharia had succeeded Karoline Leavitt, who stepped down at the end of August after the birth of her second child. Her departure reopens a contest for the job just as Trump has complained that his administration is losing the public-relations battle ahead of the Nov. 3 vote.

Two sources familiar with the president’s thinking told NBC News it is highly unlikely Trump will name a new press secretary any time soon. Names already circulating in Washington include principal deputy press secretary Anna Kelly, communications director Steven Cheung, commentator Scott Jennings and podcast host Katie Miller, according to The Guardian and Newsweek. Activist Laura Loomer, a part-time adviser to the president, publicly put herself forward within hours of the news.