Donald Trump’s new White House press secretary is a “sacrificial lamb” who could end up being replaced if Republicans lose the midterm elections, former political advisers have warned.
After Katie Zacharia’s jaw-dropping debut on Tuesday, press secretaries from both sides of politics say the 41-year-old now faces an uphill battle to keep her job as the president’s latest MAGA mouthpiece.
“I really fear that she’s being used to essentially serve as the flak jacket for everything that’s going to happen between now and the election,” said Patrick Riccards, who advised the Bush, Clinton and Obama administrations, served as a deputy press secretary in the Senate and worked as a communications director on Capitol Hill.
“She will be the sacrificial lamb,” he told the Daily Beast. “She will take the slings and arrows, and after the election, if the Republicans lose, you will likely see a different face that’s brought in.”
The dire prediction aligns with some current and former administration aides, who have privately said they were alarmed by Zacharia’s first briefing, which Trump announced just days after hiring her.
The conservative commentator stumbled over scripted remarks, took questions from only three conservative outlets, accidentally called the president her husband, and then abruptly ended the session after 14 minutes, after announcing U.S. Ambassador Kimberly Guilfoyle had been asked to resign.
The performance sharply contrasted with her combative predecessor, Karoline Leavitt, who left in August to spend more time with her young children but has since become a Fox News commentator.
“Karoline Leavitt was very good at her job because the job is to lie consistently and lie with great levels of enthusiasm, and she doesn’t look like she’s ready to do that,” former Trump communications director Anthony Scaramucci, who famously lasted 11 days in the role, told MS NOW. Earlier, he also warned on X: “The clock is running.”
Others, such as Sean Spicer, who was Trump’s first press secretary in his first term, defended Zacharia, telling POLITICO: “I practiced for my first briefing for weeks and still had a tough first outing. Katie jumped into the briefing room after 24 hours on the job and held her own.”
Former Biden White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also weighed in, calling the job one of the hardest gigs in Washington and saying, “You cannot just go in there unprepared.”
“It took me four hours every day to prep with my team, and it took me weeks before I went to the podium for the first time as deputy press secretary,” she told CNN.
“You are standing in front of, not just the briefing room, but the world… and so what I saw (from Zacharia) was odd. I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Trump, meanwhile, gave a six-word verdict as he departed the White House for a midterm blitz of Alaska, Arizona and Montana on Tuesday: “I thought she was very good.”
The White House also issued a lengthy press release saying their new press secretary “delivered a commanding inaugural press briefing” that created “wall-to-wall coverage” and served “as a strong introduction to her tenure.”
“Katie is a fabulous and wonderful addition to the team. She is uniquely qualified and whip smart to help inform the American people about all the great things President Trump and his Administration have been doing, and she will do an incredible job as Press Secretary,” communications director Steven Cheung told the Daily Beast.
Trump announced Zacharia as Leavitt’s replacement on Friday, surprising many administration officials.
Two days later, he announced on Truth Social that she would make her first briefing on Tuesday at 9:30 am—something that White House sources admit gave the mother of four little time to prepare.
The president reportedly was impressed by her TV appearances and called her directly about the job, bypassing his chief of staff, Susie Wiles, who preferred CNN’s MAGA mouthpiece, Scott Jennings.
But Zacharia immediately came under scrutiny, as did her social media history, which included, among other things, posts amplifying debunked Pizzagate conspiracy theories and claims that Democrats and Hollywood elites were pedophiles and cannibals.
She also now faces fresh questions about her career background after claiming on her resume that she has worked as an attorney, even though there is no evidence that she has passed the bar in any U.S. state, or in her native California, where she claims to have done legal work.
“I practiced international transaction law, with all the appropriate credentials,” she said in a statement.
