The White House confirmed to Newsweek Friday that press secretary Katie Zacharia would be transitioning out of her role, after less than a week in the job. Zacharia's departure from the White House will likely draw comparisons with Anthony Scaramucci, who served as President Donald Trump's communications director for 11 days in July 2017, including holding some press briefings. Trump announced her appointment October 9, with her official start day being Monday.
What followed was a short, heavily criticized press briefing, back-and-forth over whether Zacharia was a lawyer or not, and an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity during which the host was "a little bit tough" on her, according to Trump. "Katie Zacharia didn’t last because her loyalty was to Donald Trump, not to the press, and not to the American people," Corbin Trent, amedia strategist and former AOC Communications Director, said in a statement shared with Newsweek. "It was painful to watch her twist herself into a pretzel trying to answer questions that she knew would undermine Donald Trump.
"In just five short days, Zacharia chose Trump rather than the truth. Even an administration as comfortable with lies and manipulation as Trump’s, there are limits. You can't embarrass yourself on television." Zacharia had replaced Karoline Leavitt, who departed in the summer after serving as press secretary since January 2025.
Her departure Friday marks one of the shortest tenures of a White House press secretary in history. Historically, most press secretaries have served for lengthy periods, with some presidents only having a few across their time in the White House. Bush only had one, Marlin Fitzwater, while President Joe Biden had two, Jen Psaki and Karine Jean-Pierre.
During Trump's first administration, from 2017 through 2021, the president had four press secretaries, with the period notably tumultuous for just four years—compared to the four across President Bill Clinton and George W. Sean Spicer was Trump's first press secretary, serving from January through to July of 2017. He was followed by Sarah Huckabee Sanders, now Governor of Arkansas, who served the longest period from July 2017 through June 2019.
Stephanie Grisham followed, lasting 281 days until April 2020, with Kayleigh McEnany seeing the rest of Trump's first term through. This is a breaking news story.
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