Katie Zacharia’s time behind the lectern of the White House briefing room is over almost before it began. The former conservative TV commentator is leaving the job after just five days, administration officials confirmed on Friday, a new low for brevity in Donald Trump’s communications team.
Her week went wrong from the very first appearance. Tuesday’s debut briefing was over in less than a quarter of an hour, with only a handful of questions taken. A question about intelligence-sharing with Kyiv went unanswered and, in a nervous slip, called her husband “the president”.
The bigger problem was her résumé. The president’s own announcement had billed her as “an attorney”, and she routinely used the word lawyer about herself. After digging by the newsletter Popular Information and the Wall Street Journal, she conceded on Thursday that she took California’s licensing test in 2011, the year she finished at Pepperdine, failed it, and never tried again. Her explanation: right after her studies she relocated to China, where she says her cross-border deal work was done with the proper “credentials”. A nonpartisan watchdog has since filed a complaint urging Californian regulators to look into whether using that title was illegal.
In the end Trump himself signalled the exit. Standing next to Marine One on Friday, he said the media had treated her “pretty nastily” and said that in her position he would think twice. Hours later Zacharia posted effusive praise for her boss, saying she had been proud to serve him. A senior official said she would take on another, still unannounced role.
The timing hurts the Republicans. Midterm elections are less than three weeks away, and Trump keeps complaining that his party’s message is not getting through. According to NBC News, a successor is unlikely to be named soon. Democrats pounced, with House leader Hakeem Jeffries mocking the departure on X.
Even Anthony Scaramucci, whose ill-fated spell as communications director in 2017 became shorthand for short appointments, could not resist joking on X that records exist to be beaten.
