LAST UPDATE | 2 hrs ago

WHITE HOUSE PRESS secretary Katie Zacharia will leave the role just five days after she was appointed. 

It comes after her first press room briefing got off to a rocky start before it emerged that her previous claims to be a lawyer were not true.

Asked about reports that Zacharia was “transitioning” out of the role, a White House official confirmed to AFP on condition of anonymity.

Earlier, US president Donald Trump had said she should “reconsider” her position. 

“Katie has been treated very badly by the media. Very, very badly. Very unfairly,” he told reporters on the lawn of the White House. 

“I just spoke to her about it. I said ‘Katie, is this for you?’. Because she’s been treated very rough, and she’s a nice person.”

ZACHARIA IS ON THE WAY OUT ALREADY 👇 Q: Would you have liked to have known that Katie Zacharia didn't pass the bar? TRUMP: Katie has been treated very badly by the media. Very very badly. Very unfair. I just asked her, is this for you? And she's a nice person. I'm going to let her make that decision. Sean Hannity was a little bit tough. Katie is off to a start that, the news has been so nasty to her. I told her, 'Honestly, if I were you, I would reconsider.' Maybe it's not for her

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 16, 2026

He said the news has been “so nasty to her”, adding: “I told her: ‘Honestly, if I were you, I would reconsider.’ Maybe it’s not for her.”

When asked if he wanted her to remain in the role, Trump said: “I’ll talk to her when I get back.”

Zacharia faced the media for the first time on Tuesday and seemed less-than-assured across a short 14-minute press conference. 

During the press briefing, Zacharia stumbled over some of her answers and only took questions from conservative news outlets Breitbart, Fox News and Daily Mail. 

Significant questions were then raised about qualifications she has touted in the past.  

Zacharia has described herself as a lawyer during television appearances and on social media, and listed herself as general counsel of a California-based conservative nonprofit.

On Thursday, she acknowledged during an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity that she had failed the bar exam and had never practiced law in the US. 

When asked if she ever retook the bar exam, Zacharia, who graduated from law school at California’s Pepperdine University in 2011, replied: “I did not.”

“It was never my intent to go into the practice of law,” she said.

In another interview on Thursday with pro-Trump outlet Real America’s Voice, Zacharia said she had registered to take the bar exam but was “distracted and overwhelmed” by plans to move to China with her husband.

“The results are somewhat inconsequential because I knew I wouldn’t need the bar in China,” she said.

Zacharia said “many people in the field” had assured her that she could “label myself a lawyer,” given her law degree.

In a further attempt at damage control, she gave a defensive interview to Trump-friendly “Fox and Friends” today, saying: “I’m being hired as White House press secretary and not White House counsel.”

Zacharia succeeded Karoline Leavitt as White House press secretary, who stepped down in August to care for her young children and who has since become a Fox News contributor. 

Her firing means she lasted even less time than Anthony Scaramucci, who served as Trump’s head of communications for only 10 days during his first administration.

Reacting to the news this evening, Scaramucci wrote on X: “Records are made to be broken. But I take no pleasure in other people’s pain.”

Zacharia was the press secretary Trump has hired across his two non-consecutive presidential terms. Of those, three served for less than a year.

With reporting from © AFP 2026