Ex-Aides Warn Katie Zacharia Faces Chop as Trump’s ‘Sacrificial Lamb’

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Reuters Donald Trump’s new White House press secretary is a “sacrificial lamb” who could end up being replaced if Republicans lose the midterm elections, former political advisers have warned.

After Katie Zacharia’s jaw-dropping debut on Tuesday, press secretaries from both sides of politics say the 41-year-old now faces an uphill battle to keep her job as the president’s latest MAGA mouthpiece.

“I really fear that she’s being used to essentially serve as the flak jacket for everything that’s going to happen between now and the election,” said Patrick Riccards, who advised the Bush, Clinton and Obama administrations, served as a deputy press secretary in the Senate and worked as a communications director on Capitol Hill.

“She will be the sacrificial lamb,” he told the Daily Beast.

“She will take the slings and arrows, and after the election, if the Republicans lose, you will likely see a different face that’s brought in.” The dire prediction aligns with some current and former administration aides, who have privately said they were alarmed by Zacharia’s first briefing, which Trump announced just days after hiring her.

The conservative commentator stumbled over scripted remarks, took questions from only three conservative outlets, accidentally called the president her husband, and then abruptly ended the session after 14 minutes, after announcing U.S.

Ambassador Kimberly Guilfoyle had been asked to resign.

The performance sharply contrasted with her combative predecessor, Karoline Leavitt, who left in August to spend more time with her young children but has since become a Fox News commentator.

“Karoline Leavitt was very good at her job because the job is to lie consistently and lie with great levels of enthusiasm, and she doesn’t look like she’s ready to do that,” former Trump communications director Anthony Scaramucci, who famously lasted 11 days in the role, told MS NOW.

Earlier, he also warned on X: “The clock is running.” Others, such as Sean Spicer, who was Trump’s first press secretary in his first term, defended Zacharia, telling POLITICO: “I practiced for my first briefing for weeks and still had a tough first outing.

Katie jumped into the briefing room after 24 hours on the job and held her own.” Former Biden White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also weighed in, calling the job one of the hardest gigs in Washington and saying, “You cannot just go in there unprepared.” “It took me four hours every day to prep with my team, and it took me weeks before I went to the podium for the first time as deputy press secretary,” she told CNN.

“You are standing in front of, not just the briefing room, but the world… and so what I saw (from Zacharia) was odd.