Katie Zacharia Out as White House Press Secretary

Katie Zacharia‘s tenure as White House press secretary was over almost as quickly as it began, following a disastrous first press briefing and mounting questions about her qualifications.

According to The New York Times, just days after officially taking over as White House press secretary on October 12, following President Donald Trump‘s announcement of her appointment on October 9, Zacharia was dismissed from the position on Friday, October 16, after a rocky start that included a poorly received first press briefing and growing questions about her background.

Zacharia’s troubles began after her first press briefing on Tuesday. During the briefing, she appeared nervous and struggled with her delivery. Zacharia spent much of the briefing slowly reading prepared statements praising President Donald Trump. Critics pointed to her stiff delivery, uncomfortable pauses, and strained smiles. The briefing lasted just 14 minutes, and she took questions exclusively from Breitbart, Fox News, and the Daily Mail. When other reporters tried to ask questions, she ended the briefing.

During the briefing, Zacharia couldn’t answer a question about Ukraine and accidentally referred to her husband as her president. After the briefing, when Zacharia was asked which state she had passed the bar exam in, she instead answered, “When I moved to China.”

Soon afterward, reports began questioning whether she had accurately represented her legal qualifications. President Donald Trump had publicly described Zacharia as an attorney, but it emerged that she had failed the bar exam, which is generally required to become a licensed lawyer. This raised questions about whether she had misled people about her legal cred.

Trump later suggested that he had personally encouraged Zacharia to reconsider the high-profile position. Speaking to reporters Friday, he stated that he told Zacharia, “Katie, you don’t have to do this.” Trump also stated that she was treated “pretty nastily.”

Although three people familiar with the situation confirmed her firing to The New York Times, neither Zacharia nor the White House responded to requests for comment.

Anthony Scaramucci, the former White House communications director who famously lasted just 11 days in Trump’s administration in 2017, weighed in on X after MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough reacted to Zacharia’s dismissal by joking, “Mooch, we hardly knew ye,” referencing Scaramucci’s notoriously brief stint. “Records are made to be broken. But I take no pleasure in other people’s pain,” Scaramucci wrote on social media.

Records are made to be broken. But I take no pleasure in other people’s pain.

— Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) October 16, 2026