Katie Zacharia ousted as White House press secretary

Axios · 10/17/2026, 1:15:45 AM

White House press secretary Katie Zacharia was ousted Friday after just five days on the job, according to two senior Trump administration officials. Why it matters: Zacharia will be the shortest-tenured press secretary in modern history, with her first and only week in the White House marked by speculation about her legal credentials and criticism of her first press briefing. Trump told reporters Friday that he had urged Zacharia to "reconsider" the job, saying: "The news has been so nasty to her. I've never seen anything like it actually. And I said to her, 'honestly, if I were you, I'd reconsider. You think about it, but I would reconsider." "POTUS is a big fan of Katie's, and what POTUS said to the reporters is exactly what he said in private," a senior White House official said. "President Trump is a kind, wonderful, gracious, thoughtful, enthusiastic, and the most hardworking man. I wish more Americans appreciated him," Zacharia said in a post to X on Friday evening. "No one will ever make America great the way he has and continues to," she said. It was an honor to work for him." Driving the news: Zacharia was seen as a surprise pick when Trump announced her hiring on Oct. 9. She started work the following Monday, Oct. 12, and gave her first — and likely only — press briefing the following day. In that press conference, she was visibly shaky and nervous and left the president unimpressed, a White House official told Axios. Trump was also "blindsided" when he learned she wasn't an "attorney" as he had posted on Truth Social when he announced her hire. Zacharia tried to do damage control after a Wall Street Journal report that she wasn't licensed to practice law in any U.S. state. She told Fox News that she failed the exam and never retook it, since she was moving to China But her interview explanations weren't seen as up to snuff by Trump, the source said. Background: Zacharia's hiring was solely a Trump decision, one furthered along with the strong input of hi