White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia has left her position less than a week after her appointment.
Zacharia, who was appointed last Friday to succeed Karoline Leavitt, began work on Monday and held her only official briefing on Tuesday.
The 14-minute briefing, where she took three questions and read largely from prepared notes, attracted widespread criticism.
Days after her debut, her legal credentials came under scrutiny. President Donald Trump had described her as an attorney, and she had previously said she practiced international transaction law in China.
In interviews on Thursday, Zacharia confirmed that she failed the California bar examination in 2011 and is not licensed to practice law in the United States. She holds a law degree from Pepperdine University.
Her departure was confirmed on Friday, October 16. Two White House officials told Reuters that she was let go and is transitioning out of the role, while Fox News reported she was transitioning to a new position to be announced later. President Trump said he advised her to reconsider the job.
“I said, ‘Is this for you Katie? Because honestly, you don’t need this,’” Trump told reporters before departing for Georgia. He said she had been treated “very rough” by the media.
In a statement on X, Zacharia praised the President, saying it was an honour to work for him.
Zacharia’s four-and-a-half-day tenure is now the shortest for a White House spokesperson, breaking the previous 10-day record held by Anthony Scaramucci as communications director in 2017.
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