Katie Zacharia is leaving her post as White House press secretary five days after a debut briefing that ran under 15 minutes and took three questions.
The backstory: Zacharia, 42, was hired less than a week before her first briefing on Tuesday. She read talking points from a notebook, referred to her husband as the president, and spent the following days answering questions about her credentials.
Zoom in: Asked at that briefing where she passed the bar exam, Zacharia replied, "When I was in China." On Thursday she admitted she had failed to pass the bar, while saying she had practised international transaction law in China with the appropriate credentials.
- Fox News host Sean Hannity pressed her on Thursday on why she had framed her career as legal work at all, and asked whether the staff should have prepped her better.
What they're saying: Trump signalled the exit hours earlier in front of Marine One: "I said, 'Is this for you, Katie? Because honestly, you don't need this.'" He added that he believed the media had treated her pretty nastily.
- Zacharia then praised Trump on X as "kind, wonderful, gracious, thoughtful, enthusiastic, and the most hardworking man," calling it an honour to work for him.
Between the lines: Anthony Scaramucci, who lasted 10 days as communications director in Trump's first term, posted: "Records are made to be broken. But I take no pleasure in other people's pain." House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said the departure shows Maga extremists continue to fall apart.
Why it matters: The briefing room is the administration's main channel to voters, and it goes vacant weeks before a November midterm election that decides control of Congress. Zacharia arrived from Fox and Newsmax appearances, a brief Homeland Security spokeswoman stint, and a communications job at Truth Social.
