Katie Zacharia’s time as the White House press secretary ended on Friday, less than a week after it began.
Zacharia started on Monday. By Friday, President Donald Trump told reporters he had encouraged her to “reconsider” taking the job.
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What Trump said
Trump described a conversation with Zacharia as advice about whether she should stay in the role.
“Honestly, if I were you, I’d reconsider,” he told reporters, recounting what he said to her. He added: “Katie, do you need this? I don’t think you need this.”
Trump also suggested she could remain in his orbit. “In some form,” he said, she might continue working for him, “but maybe a more pleasant form.”
The official line
Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, said Zacharia would be “transitioning into a new role that will be announced at a later date.”
Zacharia held the press secretary job for five days.
A brief debut
Zacharia’s first press briefing on Tuesday was also her last. In the briefing, she largely read off a script and ended questioning after just three queries.
Inside the White House, some believed her debut had been a disaster, and she was not seen as a deft communicator.
Questions about her legal background
After Tuesday’s briefing, attention turned to how Zacharia had presented her legal career. Trump had referred to her as “an attorney,” despite her failing her bar exam.
Zacharia had represented herself as a lawyer in the news media, but when asked repeatedly by a reporter on the South Lawn to say in which state she had passed a bar exam, she twice replied, “When I moved to China.” She later said she had misheard the question, even though Trump had repeated it while standing feet away.
Fox interviews
Zacharia appeared on Fox News on Thursday night to be interviewed by Trump’s friend Sean Hannity, who asked her a few tough questions and treated her with rare skepticism.
The reception she got on Friday morning on “Fox and Friends” was also skeptical.
“Do you wish you would have disclosed to the president about the bar and not passing the bar?” one of the hosts, Lawrence Jones, asked her.
“Well, Lawrence,” Zacharia responded, “those questions weren’t asked.”
A surprise pick
Trump offered Zacharia the job the prior Friday. She started work on Monday and had not even moved to Washington yet.
A little known Fox News commentator with whom many in the White House were unfamiliar, she was a surprise pick. While she had the support of Natalie Harp, the powerful West Wing aide who rarely leaves Trump’s side, others in the building believed her debut had been a disaster.
A week of upheaval
Zacharia’s ouster capped off a week of upheaval inside Trumpworld.
- Kimberly Guilfoyle, the ambassador to Greece, was fired on television on Tuesday.
- Trump spent time in the Oval Office trying to get to the bottom of a vicious fight between two of his loyalists, Richard Grenell and Alina Mildon.
- Paolo Zampolli, a longtime Trump confidant who claimed to have introduced the president to his wife, was pushed out at the State Department after one of his internecine feuds spilled into the press.
- The daughter of Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, and others in her circle, came under scrutiny for their moneymaking overseas.