Trump's New Press Secretary, Katie Zacharia, Was Fired After Less Than a Week on the Job
Five days
Trump's new press secretary, Katie Zacharia, was fired after less than a week on the job, per NYT.
The Times reported Friday, citing three people familiar with the matter, that Zacharia had been dismissed. A White House official gave Fox News a softer version, saying she is "transitioning out" of the job. Neither the White House nor Zacharia responded to the Times' requests for comment.
Trump himself framed it as her call. Speaking to reporters Friday, he recounted telling her: "Honestly, if I were you, I'd reconsider." He added: "Katie, do you need this? I don't think you need this." He also said the media had treated her "very badly," and told Fox's Peter Doocy aboard Air Force One that he was in no rush to name a replacement.
The five-day tenure is shorter than Anthony Scaramucci's 11 days as communications director in 2017.
One briefing, then the bar exam
Zacharia, a former Fox News personality, was appointed on October 9 to replace Karoline Leavitt, who left at the end of August. She started Monday and held her first briefing Tuesday. It was her last: it lasted just 14 minutes, she took only three questions, and she used it to announce that the administration had asked Kimberly Guilfoyle to resign as ambassador to Greece.
The deeper problem was credentials. Trump had introduced her as "an attorney," and she had described herself as a lawyer, but Zacharia holds a law degree and failed the California bar exam, which she acknowledged in interviews Thursday. Before the White House she was a senior communications adviser at Trump Media & Technology Group and briefly a spokesperson at the Department of Homeland Security.
The final blow may have come Thursday night on Fox News. Sean Hannity, a close Trump ally who had initially defended her debut as "perfectly normal," grilled her on air about whether White House staff had failed to prepare her. Zacharia replied that she "probably should have stepped aside" instead of taking questions.
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Options market and stocks to watch
A five-day press secretary does not move the S&P 500, and traders should file this under communications chaos rather than policy change. Nothing about the firing alters the tariff, rate or fiscal picture that actually drives positioning into the midterms.
The one ticker with a genuine link is DJT: Zacharia came to the White House directly from Trump Media, and the stock trades as a sentiment gauge on the administration's stability and media standing. White House personnel churn has historically been a volatility trigger for DJT rather than for the broad market, so watch its options flow for headline-driven spikes that fade. Everything else is SPY noise. Follow the story on the Unusual Whales news feed.
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