{"id":687979,"date":"2026-10-17T12:09:47","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T12:09:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=687979"},"modified":"2026-10-17T12:09:47","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T12:09:47","slug":"katie-zacharia-transitioning-out-as-trump-spox-just-days-after-shaky-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=687979","title":{"rendered":"Katie Zacharia \u2018transitioning out\u2019 as Trump spox just days after shaky start"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/div>\n

The very brief tenure of Katie Zacharia as White House press secretary is already over, and she\u2019s \u201ctransitioning out\u201d of the job just days after her disastrous first daily briefing.<\/p>\n

After the announcement that she would replace Karoline Leavitt, who stepped down in August, the naming of the conservative commentator and communications adviser to the company that runs Truth Social was seen as a head-scratcher by some, especially with CNN\u2019s seasoned political warrior Scott Jennings being among the names bandied about.<\/p>\n

On Friday, following days of being savaged by the media, Zacharia was out, and the job of President Donald J. Trump\u2019s top spokesperson is once again up for grabs.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\ud83d\udea8\" BREAKING: Katie Zacharia is out as White House press secretary after just four days.<\/p>\n

Per Fox\u2019s Peter Doocy, a senior White House official says she\u2019s \u201ctransitioning out of the press secretary job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before that, Trump said he told her minutes before facing reporters: \u201cYou don\u2019t have to do this if you don\u2019t want to.\u201d Asked if he was firing her, he said, \u201cNo, no. I want her to have a good life,\u201d and added, \u201cShe\u2019s been brutalized by the media.\u201d<\/p>\n

She has four young kids and a family in California. The press corps went after her like sharks from day one. Trump showed her real class here. I wish her and her family the best.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Gunther Eagleman\"\u2122\" (@GuntherEagleman) October 16, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

When speaking with reporters from the White House on Friday, the president explained that he suggested that she step down from the high-pressure, high-visibility position and that she has been treated \u201cvery badly, very unfairly\u201d by the media.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just spoke to her about it. I said, \u2018Katie, is this for you?\u2019\u201d Trump said. \u2033\u2018If I were you, I\u2019d reconsider.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"\ud83d\udea8\" BREAKING: President Trump says KATIE ZACHARIA might STEP DOWN as Press Secretary, declares she\u2019s being treated unfairly<\/p>\n

\u201cI said to her, if I were you, I\u2019d reconsider.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIs this for you Katie? Honestly, you don\u2019t need this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe said, this is a lot tougher. Welcome to the world of Trump. I\u2019ll let her make that decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI said \u2014 Katie, is this for you? She\u2019s been treated very rough. She\u2019s a nice person. I watched her for years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was on Hannity last night. Sean was a little tough, I saw Fox and Friends. She\u2019s been treated, I\u2019d say, pretty nastily. I said to Katie two minutes ago \u2014 you don\u2019t have to do this if you don\u2019t want it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want her to be happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

@KatieZacharia has been on the job for less than a week. Trump is right, they\u2019ve been OUT FOR HER<\/p>\n

47 is understanding. Press sec is NOT for everybody<\/p>\n

Clearly Trump is NOT firing or ousting her, he\u2019s giving her a chance. Right now, his focus is on rallies<\/p>\n

\u2014 Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) October 16, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cShe was on Sean Hannity last night, and Sean was a little bit tough. And she did \u2013 I saw \u2018Fox and Friends\u2019 this morning. They were little tough,\u201d Trump said, referring to Zacharia\u2019s appearance on the longtime Fox News host\u2019s show on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s been treated \u2013 I would say, pretty nastily. And I said to Katie, just two minutes ago, I said, Katie, you know, you don\u2019t have to do this. You don\u2019t want this. She said, this is a lot tougher. I said, welcome to the world of Trump,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Zacharia thanked Trump in a Friday post to social media with a picture of her standing beside the president at his desk.<\/p>\n

\n

President Trump is a kind, wonderful, gracious, thoughtful, enthusiastic, and hardworking man. I wish more Americans appreciated him. No one will ever make America great the way he has and continues to.<\/p>\n

It was an honor to work for him. https:\/\/t.co\/Tp4NizrhE2<\/p>\n

\u2014 Katie Zacharia (@KatieZacharia) October 17, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cPresident Trump is a kind, wonderful, gracious, thoughtful, enthusiastic, and hardworking man. I wish more Americans appreciated him. No one will ever make America great the way he has and continues to,\u201d she wrote. \u201cIt was an honor to work for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

But despite Trump\u2019s kind words, a different story has emerged with CNN\u2019s Kaitlan Collins dishing on the gossip that the president was allegedly \u201cembarrassed\u201d by coverage of Zacharia\u2019s press briefing face plant and polled aides about her.<\/p>\n

\n

I\u2019m told Trump was embarrassed by the coverage of Zacharia\u2019s briefing and when he polled other aides about her, Zacharia had few allies willing to stand up for her or defend her performance. The main reason he rushed to select her after growing irritated with how long the process was taking to replace Karoline Leavitt was because he wanted more people defending him on TV. When she failed to do so in a sufficient way with Sean Hannity, Trump said he knew she needed to go.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) October 16, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cI\u2019m told Trump was embarrassed by the coverage of Zacharia\u2019s briefing and when he polled other aides about her, Zacharia had few allies willing to stand up for her or defend her performance,\u201d Collins wrote. \u201cThe main reason he rushed to select her after growing irritated with how long the process was taking to replace Karoline Leavitt was because he wanted more people defending him on TV.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen she failed to do so in a sufficient way with Sean Hannity, Trump said he knew she needed to go,\u201d claimed the CNN anchor and White House correspondent.<\/p>\n

Politico reporter Daniel Lippman went even farther than Collins, writing on X that Trump allegedly told staffers that \u201cshe had no talent and shouldn\u2019t be on television.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

NEW: One White House official told me that President Trump, in an earlier meeting that Katie Zacharia was not present for, told attendees that she had no talent and shouldn\u2019t be on television. https:\/\/t.co\/SN6bQHwjOp<\/p>\n

\u2014 Daniel Lippman (@dlippman) October 16, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Controversy over Zacharia\u2019s reportedly not passing the bar exam despite being presented as a lawyer likely didn\u2019t help her cause either.<\/p>\n

And the search for Leavitt\u2019s replacement is back on again.<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The very brief tenure of Katie Zacharia as White House press secretary is already over, and she\u2019s \u201ctransitioning out\u201d of the job just days after her disastrous first daily briefing. After the announcement that she would replace Karoline Leavitt, who stepped down in August, the naming of the conservative commentator and communications adviser to the… Continue reading Katie Zacharia \u2018transitioning out\u2019 as Trump spox just days after shaky start<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,22,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-687979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-border-security","category-immigration","category-immigration-reform","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=687979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687979\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=687979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=687979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=687979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}