White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia was "let go" from the role, a White House official said on Friday, after President Donald Trump said he had told her to reconsider the job following public scrutiny.
"I told her: 'I think you're better off being happy, and I'm not sure you can ever be happy in this stuff.' There's nothing easy about this stuff," Trump told reporters while departing the White House.
He added: "I said to her honestly, 'If I were you, I'd reconsider... think about it. But I would reconsider.'"
Fox News, citing a White House official, later reported that Zacharia was "transitioning" out of the role of press secretary.
Zacharia started the job on Monday and held her debut White House briefing on Tuesday.
She had said she received a call about the role of press secretary last Wednesday and got offered the job to succeed Karoline Leavitt last Friday.
Trump later announced her appointment. In his announcement, he described her an attorney.
Zacharia got off to a rocky start with her first press room briefing Tuesday.
It lasted less than 15 minutes, starting with a remarkably slow reading out of what she said were Trump's many accomplishments -- then taking just three questions from journalists.
Over the last week, the issue of whether Zacharia, a graduate of California's Pepperdine University law school, had actually passed the bar - making her an attorney - came under fire.
On Friday, during a Fox News interview on Thursday, Zacharia said she did not pass the bar. Anthony Scaramucci served director of communications for 10 days during Trump's first administration.
Zacharia further stirred controversy on Thursday when she disparaged China, whose leader Xi Jinping was recently Trump's guest in a pomp-filled Washington visit.
The press secretary recalled the perception in 2016 was that China would soon overtake the United States.
"I remember this very distinctly, having just come from China, thinking, 'How is China the next country on the horizon? They don't even have proper toilets,'" she told right-wing influencer Jack Posobiec in an interview.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning responded Friday that Zacharia should "visit China more often."
The kerfuffle is a distraction for 80-year-old Trump as he flies around the country trying to boost Republican candidates ahead of the November 3 congressional midterm elections, with polls predicting a drubbing.