Katie Zacharia has been fired as White House press secretary just five days into the job, after a disastrous debut briefing and mounting questions about her background.
Her departure was confirmed by two White House officials on Friday, minutes after President Donald Trump publicly suggested she should reconsider the role. It leaves the president without a chief spokesperson little more than two weeks before the midterm congressional elections.
Zacharia, a political strategist who had been a frequent presence on conservative outlets including Newsmax and Fox News, started on Monday and held her first White House briefing on Tuesday. It lasted about 14 minutes and was widely criticised.
"If I were you, I'd reconsider"
Trump announced the end of her tenure in characteristically indirect fashion, recounting to reporters a conversation he had held with her earlier in the day.
"Honestly, if I were you, I'd reconsider," the president said he had told her. "Katie, do you need this? I don't think you need this."
He added that "maybe it's not for her", while voicing support for her as a person. "I told her: 'I think you're better off being happy, and I'm not sure you can ever be happy in this stuff.' There's nothing easy about this stuff," he said as he left the White House for a weekend trip.
The White House quickly confirmed to reporters that Zacharia would be "transitioning out" of the position.
A whirlwind appointment
Zacharia said she received a call about the press secretary role on 7 October and was offered the job days later. The speed of the appointment, with what officials acknowledged was minimal vetting, meant questions about her record surfaced only after she was behind the podium.
Chief among them were claims about her legal credentials, which critics said she had mischaracterised over the course of her career. Her halting performances in the briefing room and in subsequent television interviews compounded the problem.
The episode is a striking self-inflicted wound at a sensitive moment. Republicans are scrambling to hold seats in November's midterms, and the press secretary is central to the White House effort to promote the administration's record and support candidates across the country.
A difficult inheritance
The press secretary's job is demanding under any president, and this White House has cycled through communications staff at speed. Zacharia's five-day tenure is among the shortest of any senior White House spokesperson in modern history.
Her appointment came amid reported infighting within the West Wing and signs of voter discontent with Republicans. Polls suggest the party faces a difficult election night in November, making an effective public messenger more important, not less.
There was no immediate announcement of a successor. Deputies are expected to handle briefings in the interim, though the president himself remains his own most frequent and most unpredictable spokesperson.
For Zacharia, the departure caps a whirlwind fortnight: a surprise call-up, a podium debut that lasted barely a quarter of an hour, and a public dismissal delivered by the president in front of the cameras.
The White House said the search for a permanent replacement was under way. Whoever takes the job will inherit a briefing room that has just watched its last occupant rise and fall inside a single working week.
