White House press secretary resigns days into role

WorldPolitics
17 Oct 2026 • 10:38 AM MYT
Media Selangor (EN)
Media Selangor (EN)

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White House press secretary resigns days into role

WASHINGTON, Oct 17 - White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia has stepped down after just days in the role, a senior US administration official told dpa on Friday. 

Earlier on Friday, Trump implied that Zacharia might not last long in the job.

"I said to her honestly, if I were you, I'd reconsider," he told reporters outside the White House, adding that he thought she had been treated "very badly" by the media.

Pressure mounted swiftly on Zacharia after she held an extremely short and heavily criticised first press conference on Tuesday.

She subsequently came under scrutiny over the legitimacy of her legal credentials, and on Thursday, admitted that she had failed a bar exam. 

Trump dodged a reporter's question asking whether he would have liked to know about the failed exam before hiring Zacharia.

Some of her statements also attracted unwelcome attention abroad. China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning invited Zacharia to visit after the US press secretary said that China did not "even have proper toilets."

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