The first White House briefing by Donald Trump’s new press secretary, Katie Zacharia, last week was a trial by fire – and it was a fire that burned Zacharia out of a job.
Five days into her tenure, Zacharia – a 41-year-old former conservative news commentator and mother of four from California – was sent packing by Trump, who says that she will now transition into a new role in his administration. It was a record-brief run that lasted half as long as the tenure of Anthony Scaramucci, who served just 10 days as the administration’s communications director during Trump’s first term in 2017. Speaking to reporters on the White House’s South Lawn on Friday, the president said that he told Zacharia, “Honestly, if I were you, I’d reconsider.”
The problems for Zacharia mounted quickly. Her sole press conference made the evening headlines, but for all of the wrong reasons. At just over eight minutes in, she mostly recited from a script, newsreader-style. Zacharia was tasked with sharing the news on live TV that a sitting ambassador had been fired. “We have asked ambassador [Kimberly] Guilfoyle to resign,” she told reporters when asked about the status of Donald Trump Jr’s embattled one-time fiancée and America’s now-former top diplomat in Athens. “She has been a wonderful asset to the team and we wish her well.”
Reporters from just three media outlets – all Trump-friendly and conservative – were allowed to ask questions and Zacharia didn’t always know the answers. “I’ll have to get back to you on that,” was all that she could muster when asked whether the US was still sharing intelligence with Ukraine.
Brief and biting, the words were as icy as the woman who delivered them – yet another Maga blonde handpicked by Trump, perhaps as much for her looks as her presumed loyalty. But Zacharia’s looks only got her so far, especially when the US media began to pick apart her credentials.
While Trump described her as an “attorney” when he announced her appointment, it is unclear whether she is actually qualified to practise law. Though she is a graduate of Pepperdine University’s law school in California and a current member of its Dean’s Council, she doesn’t appear to have passed the mandatory bar exam in that state (she says that her qualifications come from China, where she worked at a Beijing law firm).
Zacharia was an unlikely entrant into the White House’s inner orbit, only because few thought that her predecessor – the equally blonde 29-year-old Karoline Leavitt – would ever quit the job that she had moulded in Trump’s chaotic, confrontational and often comical image. But Leavitt left in early August, resulting in a guessing game over who might replace her. CNN contributor and longtime Republican political strategist Scott Jennings led the list of potential appointees but it was Zacharia who snagged the role. Her qualifications – at least in the president’s world – are stellar. Not only has she held roles for both Truth Social and the Trump Media & Technology Group, but she has also made promoting Maga’s America First agenda a core element of her media persona.
Then there’s Zacharia’s family life, which aligns with current Republican values. With a quartet of children – perhaps the most valuable currency for women in an administration that valorises reproduction as a near-sacred duty – she is in the company of the highest-profile Maga pronatalists. Both the US vice-president, JD Vance, and Stephen Miller, the deputy chief of staff and homeland-security adviser, also have four kids.
It might seem sexist and anachronistic to focus on Zacharia’s looks and family life but leveraging appearances and connections is how business gets done in the Trump White House. But even with the looks and contacts, she quickly emerged as the one thing that Trump hates the most: a liability.
Unlike during the president’s first administration, when there was a rapid churn of senior communications staffers, Trump 2.0 has so far been more stable. Leavitt was the only press secretary since he returned to the Oval Office, which means that the pressure was on for Zacharia to succeed.
Zacharia blamed her poor press briefing on a lack of prep time and fatigue from having had to “wake up at 03.00”. But surely she knew that the job – had she stayed in it – would have involved plenty more late nights and early mornings. As the president reportedly told the media on Friday, “Katie, do you need this? I don’t think you need this.”
It might have been Trump who didn’t need the drama and, at a moment when much of the media has never been more out for blood, the president now finds himself in search of a new press secretary.
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