Katie Zacharia has spoken out after leaving her post as White House press secretary.
Zacharia, 42, addressed her departure in a post on X alongside a photo of herself with President Donald Trump. She had been in the role for roughly five days after being tapped to replace Karoline Leavitt, who stepped down at the end of August after 18 months to focus on her family.
“President Trump is a kind, wonderful, gracious, thoughtful, enthusiastic, and hardworking man,” Zacharia wrote. “I wish more Americans appreciated him. No one will ever make America great the way he has and continues to.”
“It was an honor to work for him,” she added.
Trump himself had pushed for the exit. Speaking to reporters on the White House lawn on October 16, he recounted his advice to Zacharia after a rocky first week that included a widely panned debut press conference.
“I told her, ‘I think you’re better off being happy’,” Trump said. “I said, ‘Honestly, if I were you, I’d reconsider’. I said, ‘You think about it, but I would reconsider’.”
The president’s intervention followed a 14-minute first press conference that featured nervous laughs, stutters and shaky sentences. Scrutiny had mounted even before that appearance, with questions surfacing about Zacharia’s credentials after her appointment. When it emerged that she was an alleged lawyer who had not passed the bar exam, criticism intensified and the conference was slammed as sloppy.
With Zacharia now out, several names have surfaced as potential replacements. White House communications director Stephen Cheung worked closely with Leavitt throughout the second Trump administration and could move into the role. Anna Kelly, the principal deputy press secretary who served under Leavitt and previously acted as spokesperson for Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, is another internal option.
Katie Miller, wife of top White House aide Stephen Miller, brings prior experience as communications director for the Department of Government Efficiency and as former vice president Mike Pence’s press secretary from 2019 to 2021. Taylor Budowich, former White House deputy chief of staff who left the role last year, has also been mentioned.
From outside the administration, Scott Jennings has drawn attention. The vocal Trump supporter and on-air political contributor for CNN was previously rumored to have been in the running alongside Zacharia to replace Leavitt. Alina Habba, who served as Trump’s personal lawyer before a brief and ultimately overturned appointment as U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, rounds out the list of names circulating.
Zacharia’s swift exit marks the second transition in the press secretary role within weeks, leaving the White House once again without a permanent spokesperson as the administration weighs its options.
