Donald Trump dramatically fired his new Press Secretary Katie Zacharia after just five days in the job on Friday—then claimed he’d told her to “reconsider” her role.
The president told reporters at the White House on Friday that he believed she had been treated “very badly by the media” and had spoken to her about it moments earlier.
“I said, ‘Katie, is this for you?’ Because, you know, she’s been treated very rough, and she’s a nice person, a very nice person. I’ve watched her for years on television, but I said, ‘Is this for you, Katie? Because honestly, you don’t need this,” he said.
“I said to her, ‘Honestly, if I were you, I’d reconsider. You think about it, but I would reconsider’,” Trump continued.
“She’s got a beautiful husband and family. I met the family yesterday. Beautiful kids. It’s like from a picture postcard. And I said, ‘You should reconsider because you don’t want to go through this’.”
The New York Times quoted officials as saying Zacharia has been axed. A White House official told the Daily Beast she was “transitioning out” of her role as press secretary.
Her departure marks the latest woman to lose their job under the Trump administration, coming days after U.S Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle and following in the footsteps of former cabinet officials Pam Bondi, Kristi Noem, Lori Chavez-DeRemer and Tulsi Gabbard.
However, the president told reporters he would speak to Zacharia when he returned to the White House after their midterm blitz in Georgia and would leave the decision to her—but he did not sound particularly enthusiastic about his embattled press secretary.
Asked what he wanted her to do, Trump said: “I just want her to be happy.”
The stunning intervention comes just days after Zacharia took over as the administration’s chief spokeswoman, following Karoline Leavitt’s departure in August.
The 41-year-old mother of four was offered the job on Thursday, flew to Washington last Friday to accept it, returned home to California on Saturday, and then back to Washington on Sunday ahead of Tuesday morning’s briefing.
But the briefing turned into a car crash, with Zacharia taking only three questions, all from conservative outlets, stumbling over her words, and confusing the president with her husband. She abruptly ended the briefing after just 14 minutes, leaving reporters stunned and bewildered.
Since then, the former conservative commentator has faced mounting scrutiny over her disastrous first briefing and her legal credentials, after reports emerged that she wasn’t licensed to practice law in any U.S. state, despite suggesting otherwise.
Trump was reportedly “blindsided” when he learned she wasn’t an “attorney,” which is what he had posted on Truth Social when he announced he had hired her.
Sources told the Daily Beast she had not expected the week to be so tough—something Trump himself acknowledged while speaking to the press.
“She has suffered over the last few days,“ he said, ”and you know, maybe it’s not for her.”
But even on Friday morning, it did not seem Zacharia was going anywhere as she briefly spoke to the White House press outside the West Wing.
“I’m not taking any questions,” she said, “but I want to let you know I’m looking forward to working with all of you so much.
“Please get my number, reach out to me, call me, text me, email me. I would love to work with all of you, and I’m so excited to be working with President Trump and on behalf of the American people.”
Tensions escalated Thursday night after Zacharia tried to clean up the mess in an interview with Fox’s Sean Hannity.
But it proved to be anything but easy, with Hannity noting there had been “questions about your legal background calling yourself a lawyer.”
“You went to Pepperdine Law School, but you did not pass the bar exam, correct?”
Zacharia, smiling, replied, “Correct.”
He then asked her how she believed her briefing debut went on Tuesday—a performance, he reminded her, had been “widely panned.”
“So, what I feel is I really stepped up to the plate to do the press conference, Sean, with very little prep time. I received briefing materials in the morning,” she said.
The interview was striking given Hannity’s status as one of Trump’s most prominent media allies, prompting speculation that it could have been a coordinated hit job by figures inside the administration.
On Friday, Trump said he had watched the show and “Sean was a little bit tough.”
On Friday morning, Zacharia returned to Fox & Friends to try to steady the ship with the three co-hosts—Brian Kilmeade, Lawrence Jones, and Hannity’s fiancée Ainsley Earhardt.
They, too, seemed skeptical. Asked again why she failed to disclose to the Trump administration that she wasn’t really a lawyer, Zacharia offered a surprising response.
“Yeah. Well, Lawrence, those questions weren’t asked,” she said.
The Daily Beast has reached out to Zacharia.
