Katie Zacharia is out as White House press secretary less than a week after taking up the high-profile position, following intense scrutiny over her first briefing and revelations that she had described herself as a lawyer despite not having passed a bar examination.
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Multiple administration officials confirmed Zacharia’s departure on Friday, October 16, 2026. A senior administration official said she would transition to another role in the administration, with details to be announced later. Reuters and the Associated Press also reported her departure.
Her extraordinarily brief tenure began after President Donald Trump unexpectedly selected her to replace Karoline Leavitt, who left the position at the end of August. Zacharia formally started work on Monday and conducted her first White House press briefing the following day.
That briefing lasted less than 15 minutes and immediately attracted criticism over her performance and limited engagement with reporters. She took questions from only three outlets and was unable to answer a question concerning whether the United States had stopped sharing intelligence with Ukraine.
During the briefing, however, Zacharia disclosed that Trump had asked Kimberly Guilfoyle to resign as United States ambassador to Greece. Guilfoyle subsequently announced her departure.
But the controversy surrounding Zacharia quickly shifted from her performance at the podium to her professional credentials.
Trump had described Zacharia as an attorney when announcing her appointment, while Zacharia herself had previously referred to having practised law. Questions subsequently emerged over whether she had ever been admitted to practise law in the United States.
Zacharia eventually acknowledged in an interview that she did not pass the bar examination and had never retaken it. She earned her law degree from Pepperdine University but, according to available records reviewed by major U.S. media organisations, there is no evidence that she has been licensed to practise law in any U.S. jurisdiction.
The controversy prompted the nonpartisan Campaign for Accountability to ask the State Bar of California to investigate whether Zacharia improperly represented herself as a lawyer. The complaint is only a request for investigation and does not itself establish that she violated any law or professional rule.
Questions were also raised about Zacharia’s previous statements that she had practised law in China. The Associated Press reported that she and the White House had not produced evidence showing that she passed a bar examination in China or the United States.
Hours before her exit became public, Trump appeared to leave the decision about her future to Zacharia, telling reporters that she had been treated harshly by the media.
“She’s been treated, I would say pretty nastily,” Trump said, adding that he had told her she did not have to remain in the role if she no longer wanted it.
Asked whether he intended to keep her as press secretary, Trump said he would allow her to make the decision and added that, if he were in her position, he would “reconsider.”
Zacharia previously worked as a conservative media commentator and served as a senior communications adviser for Trump Media & Technology Group, which operates Truth Social.
Her departure after only days in office makes her tenure even shorter than Anthony Scaramucci’s celebrated 11-day stint as White House communications director during Trump’s first administration.
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