Katie Zakaria Out as White House Press Secretary After Just Five Days

Washington, October 17 (Daily Kiran) : Katie Zakaria has stepped down as the White House Press Secretary after a brief five-day stint, reportedly one of the shortest tenures in the role’s history. According to U.S. media outlets, President Donald Trump made the decision to remove her from the position.

CNN reported that Trump consulted with Zakaria about her desire to continue in the role. He noted that the media had treated her unfairly and said, “I asked her if she wanted to stay. If you don’t want to do this job, you don’t have to.” He acknowledged the challenges she faced, stating, “This is much harder than expected. Welcome to the world of Trump.”

Zakaria, who took office on October 12, previously served as a conservative commentator and was a senior communications advisor at Trump Media & Technology Group. She conducted her first press briefing on October 13, which lasted less than 15 minutes. During that briefing, she announced that Trump had asked Kimberly Guilfoyle to resign as the U.S. Ambassador to Greece but could not confirm whether the U.S. had ceased sharing intelligence with Ukraine.

This week, questions also arose regarding her legal qualifications. While Trump referred to her as a lawyer, a senior official confirmed she had not passed the California bar exam.

As of now, there has been no announcement regarding her replacement. NBC News indicated that Trump is not in a hurry to appoint a new press secretary, especially with the midterm elections approaching in less than three weeks.

Zakaria’s brief tenure is even shorter than that of Anthony Scaramucci, who served as White House Communications Director for just 11 days during Trump’s first term. Scaramucci commented on social media, noting, “Records are made to be broken, but I don’t take pleasure in someone else’s misfortune.”