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Trump’s Ice Maiden Susie Wiles Tied to ‘Sanctioned Hit’ on Katie Zacharia

The Daily Beast ·
Trump’s Ice Maiden Susie Wiles Tied to ‘Sanctioned Hit’ on Katie Zacharia

The Daily Beast/Getty Images White House press secretary Katie Zacharia’s disastrous five-day tenure may have ended with a little help from Donald Trump’s chief of staff.

In a one-on-one with Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Thursday, Zacharia tried to salvage her already floundering White House career.

Instead, the interview may have helped seal her fate.

She was axed less than 24 hours later.

The interview was reportedly partly arranged by White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, who was said to be unhappy with Zacharia’s appointment from the start, Politico reported .

A source went further, describing the interview as a “sanctioned hit” orchestrated by Wiles, suggesting the disastrous appearance may have been more than a coincidence.

“[White House spokesperson] Danielle [Alvarez] and Susie fed her to Hannity,” a source close to the situation told Politico.

Zacharia held her first press briefing Tuesday morning, just days after President Donald Trump, 80, made the surprise announcement that she would replace Karoline Leavitt, who stepped down from her role in late August.

The news, first posted to Trump’s Truth Social, reportedly caught many in the White House off guard.

But by the end of her first briefing, during which she appeared to read from a script and mixed up the president and her husband, Zacharia was under pressure to do better.

Zacharia’s unraveling took just four days, with journalists uncovering her history of shilling for a “ sort of pyramid scheme ” and her years of appearing on right-wing news programs as a legal analyst despite never having passed the bar exam .

The interview with Hannity, traditionally a safe space for MAGA-affiliated figures, got off to a rocky start—and only grew more uncomfortable.

Hannity began by saying Zacharia’s first (and only) briefing had “been widely panned, I’m sure you’re aware,” as she smiled broadly and nodded.

A senior White House official told Politico that while “Susie and Sean do talk,” Wiles was not responsible for Zacharia’s poor performance on the program.

Read the full article on The Daily Beast ›

5News aggregated this summary from the outlet’s public feed. The full article, with all the context, is on www.thedailybeast.com — the content belongs to The Daily Beast.

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