Kate Zacharia resigns after four days as Donald Trump’s press secretary

Katie Zacharia has exited her role as White House press secretary five days after resuming office.

Mr Trump told reporters on Friday that he had given Ms Zacharia the option of resigning following controversies over her academic credentials and the way she handled her first and only press briefing.

“I said, ‘Katie, you know, you don’t have to do this if you don’t want,’” Mr Trump said on Friday.

Ms Zacharia, who got off to a shaky start during her first and only briefing, drew scrutiny for referring to herself as a lawyer despite never having passed the bar exam.

Ms Zacharia had portrayed herself as an attorney in several interviews and Mr Trump also referred to her as an attorney when he announced her as a replacement for Karoline Leavitt, who resigned from the position to focus on her growing family.

Ms Zacharia said passing the bar exam was not a criterion for securing the press secretary role, noting that the presidency had not asked about her legal credentials before offering her the position.

“Do you wish you would have disclosed to the president about the bar and not passing the bar?” Fox News host Lawrence Jones asked.

“Well, Lawrence, those questions weren’t asked,” she responded.

Her exit was the latest in a string of resignations that characterised Mr Trump’s administration.

Mr Trump sacked Kimberly Guilfoyle, U.S. ambassador to Greece, following a report by The Wall Street Journal that she had solicited $100,000 from one of Mr Trump’s donors to pay off her Amex credit card.

Paolo Zampolli, a U.S. envoy and Mr Trump’s longtime associate, who says he introduced the president to his wife, Melania, also resigned this week following a bitter feud with Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau.

Politico published a report containing exchanges from the correspondence that embarrassed Mr Trump’s administration.