Katie Zacharia Fired After Five Days as White House Press Secretary

Katie Zacharia arrived as President Donald Trump's new White House press secretary to replace Karoline Leavitt, according to Le Monde. Five days later, she was out.

Scrutiny followed almost immediately after her first press briefing on Tuesday, October 13. Business Insider reported that questions about her legal credentials surfaced shortly after that appearance. Mint linked the controversy to her bar exam admission, alongside a brief first briefing and nervous delivery.

By Friday, October 16, Zacharia had been dismissed. CBS described a tenure marked by controversy over both her legal credentials and her performance. Mint reported that her exit followed Trump advising her to reconsider the job.

Zacharia issued her first public statement on Friday night, after a White House official said she would be "transitioning out" of the post, The Hill reported on October 17. Her response was complimentary rather than confrontational. According to the New York Post, she praised Trump hours after leaving.

Reporting on October 17 raised questions about how her television appearances had been arranged. NDTV relayed an allegation that Trump's most senior aide, Susie Wiles, helped set up a damaging interview because Zacharia was not her preferred replacement for Leavitt. But the New York Post reported on October 18 that Zacharia herself had pushed for morning and evening television appearances. Those accounts differ over who drove the interviews.

The attention then shifted to images Zacharia posted after her departure. The Washington Post reported on October 18 that she had posted altered photographs of Trump's Oval Office desk. On October 19, The Independent reported questions about a family photograph in the Oval Office, noting that Trump appeared nearly identical in two images.

The White House is looking for another press secretary, according to Times now. Al Jazeera described Zacharia as the shortest-serving White House press secretary. Most coverage puts her tenure at five days, although Indian Express described a seven-day stint in its headline.

Zacharia has continued speaking publicly. On October 21, NDTV reported that she was sharing lessons from her brief tenure. The Daily Beast reported a more defiant message that day: "You can either be a fighter or a marshmallow."

The immediate question is who replaces Zacharia. The supplied coverage reports a search but does not identify a confirmed successor. The competing accounts of her television appearances also leave unresolved how much responsibility lay with Zacharia and how much with the officials managing her debut.