Donald Trump’s new press secretary made a less-than-stellar debut on Tuesday, reading awkwardly from a prepared script and mangling some sentences – while taking questions from just three reporters.
Katie Zacharia was visibly nervous on her first outing as Karoline Leavitt’s replacement in a role known for its pressure and extreme public scrutiny.
She read an eight-minute statement about the president’s achievements and how honoured she was to get the job. “I have wanted to work for him for a very long time,” she said.
Zacharia recounted Trump’s midterm election blitz through Ohio, Tennessee, Texas and Alaska, and boasted that Americans were lining up and filling arenas to support Trump and Republicans – in a speech some observers thought was dangerously close to political campaigning from the White House podium.
The conservative commentator is no stranger to the cameras: she appeared frequently on right-wing networks Fox News and Newsmax, and was recently an adviser to the company that owns Trump’s social media platform Truth Social.
It was through her TV work that Zacharia caught Trump’s eye. Politico reported that she studied the president’s public schedule and monitored his social media posts, arranging her appearances when she thought he might be watching.
Trump’s predilection for TV is well known – not just his consumption of it, but his tendency to judge people based on how well they look and perform on the small screen.
It’s unlikely he would have loved Zacharia’s performance on debut. She relied heavily on a script, including for deciding which reporters to call on for questions, and fumbled in some moments.
Asked how she would juggle the demanding job with her family, she replied: “I love being with my kids. The idea of not spending evenings with my kids is completely unacceptable. My president ... excuse me, my husband. That’s a good one. My husband is out here for the week.”
One of the few substantive questions she was asked concerned whether the US was withholding intelligence from Ukraine due to Trump’s anger over strikes on Russian oil refineries. “I’ll have to get back to you on that,” she responded.
She did, however, announce that the White House had requested the resignation of Trump’s ambassador to Greece, Kimberly Guilfoyle, amid concerning news reports about her conduct.
Zacharia took questions from just three reporters – from Breitbart, Fox News and the Daily Mail – and the entire news conference lasted less than 15 minutes.
She had a partial excuse: Trump was departing the White House within the hour and would answer questions himself, as he typically does, before he boarded Marine One.
Trump said he thought Zacharia was “very good”, while White House communications director Steven Cheung said she made a “tremendous start” and “commanded the room”.
But others weren’t convinced. Television network MS-NOW quoted a White House official who reportedly said: “Getting behind the podium is tough, but she got off on the wrong foot. She needs to get much better, fast, otherwise she’ll break Scaramucci’s record.”
Anthony Scaramucci famously lasted just 11 days as communications director during Trump’s term after bad-mouthing members of the administration in a conversation with The New Yorker that he thought was off the record.
Sarah Matthews, a former deputy press secretary in the first Trump administration, said on X that Zacharia was “underwhelming” and did not look in command.
“Love them or hate them: Kayleigh McEnany and Karoline Leavitt came out swinging in their first press briefings,” she said of two of Zacharia’s predecessors. “They were sharp, confident, prepared, and proved they had the chops for the job right out of the gate.”
Zacharia may get more time to improve. Trump is holding rallies near-daily until the midterm elections on November 3, and taking questions each time he leaves the White House. In that context, a briefing from the press secretary is almost superfluous.
And while her debut left much to be desired, she ticked off the basics of the job: pump up the president’s tyres, break some news (the Guilfoyle resignation) and hand the baton back to Trump.
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