In just five days, White House spokesperson Katie Zacharia, appointed by Donald Trump and in office since Monday, stepped down on Friday, becoming the most ephemeral “Press Secretary” in recent history.
The White House press secretary post had been occupied until last August by Karoline Leavitt, a loyalist of Donald Trump, who left to take care of her young children.
Trump had already pushed the 41-year-old lawyer toward the exit earlier in the day by inviting her to “reconsider” her position.
“I just spoke to her about it. I said, +Katie, is this something you want?+,” he said during an exchange with reporters at the White House.
In a tenure marked so far by relative discipline, this precipitate departure recalls the chaos and turnover of advisers that had characterized Donald Trump’s first White House stint (2017-2021).
One of the era’s emblematic episodes was the 2017 firing of White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci after only 11 days, a record that was quickly surpassed by Katie Zacharia.
The fate of this little-known conservative commentator to the general public, who had left a rather awkward impression on Tuesday during her first briefing, and who is accused of having lied about her professional qualifications, seemed already sealed by Friday morning.
