Katie Zacharia is leaving the White House press secretary job after roughly five days, senior administration officials told multiple news outlets Friday.
Zacharia began early in the week and held her first — and only — briefing Tuesday. Coverage of the short session was harsh, and she later faced questions about whether she had misrepresented her legal background after reports that she had not passed the bar exam.
President Donald Trump told reporters he asked her to reconsider staying in the role amid tough media scrutiny. A White House official said she is “transitioning out,” with some accounts describing a move to another, still-unannounced post.
The abrupt exit leaves the administration without a standing podium voice less than three weeks before the Nov. 3 midterms. Karoline Leavitt previously held the job; regular briefings had already been sparse for months.
Zacharia’s tenure is among the shortest for a White House press secretary in modern history, according to reporting by NPR, NBC News, Reuters and the Associated Press.
Sources: NPR, NBC News, AP News. Thee Arizona Times uses AI-assisted reporting reviewed against the sources listed.
Photo: Daniel Schwen / CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
