Trump admits mistake and fires Katie Zacharia after less than one week as press secretary — breaking record

Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today.

Exactly one week after he announced he was hiring conservative TV commentator Katie Zacharia as his next White House press secretary, President Donald Trump has fired her after her dismal performance at her first briefing was followed by days of questions over whether she’d lied about being licensed to practice law.

A White House official confirmed that she’d been sacked just moments after Trump departed the White House for a rally in Georgia on the way to a weekend at his Mar-a-Lago home.

During a question-and-answer session with reporters, the president complained that his novice spokesperson had been treated “very, very badly, very unfairly” by news outlets — including a tough grilling by Fox News host Sean Hannity last night — and said he’d discussed whether Zacharia wanted to remain under such a tough media microscope.

“I said to Katie just two minutes ago, I said, Katie, you know, you don't have to do this ... the news has been so nasty to her. I've never seen anything like it. And I said, I said to her honestly, if I were you, I'd reconsider. You think about it, but I wouldn't reconsider. She's got a beautiful husband and family ... maybe it's not for her.” he said.

Zacharia’s short tenure — only five days from onboarding to firing — sets a new record for the short time served in the role by a White House press secretary or communications director, more than halving the 11-day record set during Trump’s first term.

That previous record was held by hedge fund manager Anthony Scaramucci, who Trump hired to be his communications director in July 2017 only to sack him 11 days later after he gave an expletive-filled interview to a New Yorker reporter in which he badmouthed other senior White House aides.

Scaramucci, whose last name has become a tongue-in-cheek shorthand for a unit of measurement of exactly 11 days, took to X to mark the fall of his ignominious record.

“Records are made to be broken. But I take no pleasure in other people’s pain,” he said.

Asked what he wanted Zacharia to do going forward, he replied: “I just want her to be happy.”

And when pressed further on whether he wants her to remain in the job she started on Monday, he told reporters he would speak with her when he returns to Washington and stressed that he likes her “a lot.”

“I want her to have a good life. I don't want to have a life like she's led in the last three days. She is being brutalized by the media. I think very unfairly, but she's been brutalized by the media,” he said. “When I get back, we're going to talk because I don't think that Katie could be made to suffer like she's suffering.”

The president’s suggestion that Zacharia would not continue as his top spokesperson followed a disastrous week for the conservative activist, who first attracted Trump’s attention through ubiquitous appearances on Fox News, Newsmax and other right-wing networks — often timed to when she believed he would be watching.

She officially started work on Monday, three days after he announced her hiring in a Truth Social post.