The very brief tenure of Katie Zacharia as White House press secretary is already over, and she’s “transitioning out” of the job just days after her disastrous first daily briefing.
After the announcement that she would replace Karoline Leavitt, who stepped down in August, the naming of the conservative commentator and communications adviser to the company that runs Truth Social was seen as a head-scratcher by some, especially with CNN’s seasoned political warrior Scott Jennings being among the names bandied about.
On Friday, following days of being savaged by the media, Zacharia was out, and the job of President Donald J. Trump’s top spokesperson is once again up for grabs.
🚨 BREAKING: Katie Zacharia is out as White House press secretary after just four days.
Per Fox’s Peter Doocy, a senior White House official says she’s “transitioning out of the press secretary job.”
Before that, Trump said he told her minutes before facing reporters: “You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.” Asked if he was firing her, he said, “No, no. I want her to have a good life,” and added, “She’s been brutalized by the media.”
She has four young kids and a family in California. The press corps went after her like sharks from day one. Trump showed her real class here. I wish her and her family the best.
— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) October 16, 2026
When speaking with reporters from the White House on Friday, the president explained that he suggested that she step down from the high-pressure, high-visibility position and that she has been treated “very badly, very unfairly” by the media.
“I just spoke to her about it. I said, ‘Katie, is this for you?’” Trump said. ″‘If I were you, I’d reconsider.’”
🚨 BREAKING: President Trump says KATIE ZACHARIA might STEP DOWN as Press Secretary, declares she’s being treated unfairly
“I said to her, if I were you, I’d reconsider.”
“Is this for you Katie? Honestly, you don’t need this.”
“She said, this is a lot tougher. Welcome to the world of Trump. I’ll let her make that decision.”
“I said — Katie, is this for you? She’s been treated very rough. She’s a nice person. I watched her for years.”
“She was on Hannity last night. Sean was a little tough, I saw Fox and Friends. She’s been treated, I’d say, pretty nastily. I said to Katie two minutes ago — you don’t have to do this if you don’t want it.”
“I just want her to be happy.”
@KatieZacharia has been on the job for less than a week. Trump is right, they’ve been OUT FOR HER
47 is understanding. Press sec is NOT for everybody
Clearly Trump is NOT firing or ousting her, he’s giving her a chance. Right now, his focus is on rallies
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) October 16, 2026
“She was on Sean Hannity last night, and Sean was a little bit tough. And she did – I saw ‘Fox and Friends’ this morning. They were little tough,” Trump said, referring to Zacharia’s appearance on the longtime Fox News host’s show on Thursday.
“She’s been treated – I would say, pretty nastily. And I said to Katie, just two minutes ago, I said, Katie, you know, you don’t have to do this. You don’t want this. She said, this is a lot tougher. I said, welcome to the world of Trump,” he said.
Zacharia thanked Trump in a Friday post to social media with a picture of her standing beside the president at his desk.
President Trump is a kind, wonderful, gracious, thoughtful, enthusiastic, and hardworking man. I wish more Americans appreciated him. No one will ever make America great the way he has and continues to.
It was an honor to work for him. https://t.co/Tp4NizrhE2
— Katie Zacharia (@KatieZacharia) October 17, 2026
“President Trump is a kind, wonderful, gracious, thoughtful, enthusiastic, and hardworking man. I wish more Americans appreciated him. No one will ever make America great the way he has and continues to,” she wrote. “It was an honor to work for him.”
But despite Trump’s kind words, a different story has emerged with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins dishing on the gossip that the president was allegedly “embarrassed” by coverage of Zacharia’s press briefing face plant and polled aides about her.
I’m told Trump was embarrassed by the coverage of Zacharia’s briefing and when he polled other aides about her, Zacharia had few allies willing to stand up for her or defend her performance. The main reason he rushed to select her after growing irritated with how long the process was taking to replace Karoline Leavitt was because he wanted more people defending him on TV. When she failed to do so in a sufficient way with Sean Hannity, Trump said he knew she needed to go.
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) October 16, 2026
“I’m told Trump was embarrassed by the coverage of Zacharia’s briefing and when he polled other aides about her, Zacharia had few allies willing to stand up for her or defend her performance,” Collins wrote. “The main reason he rushed to select her after growing irritated with how long the process was taking to replace Karoline Leavitt was because he wanted more people defending him on TV.”
“When she failed to do so in a sufficient way with Sean Hannity, Trump said he knew she needed to go,” claimed the CNN anchor and White House correspondent.
Politico reporter Daniel Lippman went even farther than Collins, writing on X that Trump allegedly told staffers that “she had no talent and shouldn’t be on television.”
NEW: One White House official told me that President Trump, in an earlier meeting that Katie Zacharia was not present for, told attendees that she had no talent and shouldn’t be on television. https://t.co/SN6bQHwjOp
— Daniel Lippman (@dlippman) October 16, 2026
Controversy over Zacharia’s reportedly not passing the bar exam despite being presented as a lawyer likely didn’t help her cause either.
And the search for Leavitt’s replacement is back on again.
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