Katie Zacharia made it nearly a week before President Donald Trump moved to transition her out of her role as White House press secretary.
A GOP strategist with ties to the administration told the Washington Examiner that the move was made because Zacharia had become a distraction for the White House, with questions swirling about her background and camera readiness.
“They don’t like to be surprised,” said the strategist. “Nobody else can be a distraction to the president. She was becoming a distraction, and she wasn’t forthcoming behind closed doors.”
Trump himself kicked the door open on replacing her while speaking to reporters Friday afternoon.
“I said to Katie: you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to,” he said before departing the White House for a campaign event in Georgia.
“I said, ‘Katie, do you need this? I don’t think you need this.’ So we’re talking about doing something,” the president continued. “I want her to have a good life. I don’t want her to have a life like she’s led in the last three days.”
Trump ultimately said that he would “let her make that decision,” but a senior White House official confirmed to the Washington Examiner that she would officially be “transitioning” out of the role shortly after the president finished speaking.
Trumpworld insiders tell the Washington Examiner that, following her rocky debut press briefing Tuesday and revelations regarding her legal qualifications, Zacharia’s sub-seven-minute appearance on Fox News’s Hannity on Thursday night was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Host Sean Hannity, typically a staunch Trump ally, thoroughly grilled Zacharia.
Trump watches Hannity’s broadcast virtually every night, and Zacharia routinely tailored her on-air appearances to match the president’s television consumption schedule, a person familiar with the president’s habits noted.
“Hannity f***ed her,” a former senior Trump White House press aide told the Washington Examiner. “This whole ‘just put her out on TV until she’s good’ thing isn’t working.”
Current and former Trump officials suggested to the Washington Examiner that Zacharia’s comments to Hannity about being thrown into a press briefing without much preparation left a “bad taste in the mouth” of the White House team, as a senior aide framed it Friday morning.
A senior White House official from the president’s first term mockingly said that it was “real smart” for Zacharia “to throw the team that you don’t know under the bus.”
Another Trump administration official responded to questions about how Zacharia’s comments were received by the president’s communications and press staff with a crying face emoji.
The White House declined to answer questions about Zacharia’s future at the White House or what role she would be transitioning into after press secretary.
One source familiar told the Washington Examiner that Trump was a “big fan” of Zacharia’s and spoke privately with her about her future before departing the White House on Friday.
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That person noted that other senior administration officials feel similarly to the president, citing the fact that Zacharia and her family, who just moved from California to Washington, will have dinner with Vice President JD Vance, second lady Usha Vance, and their children at the Naval Observatory on Friday night.