Zacharia ‘Transitioning Out’ After Trump Commented on Her Future

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell

•   October 16, 2026

Katie Zacharia is “transitioning out” of the White House press secretary position, a White House official confirmed to the Daily Signal.

President Donald Trump opened the door to Zacharia leaving the role on Friday.

“I said, ‘Katie, do you need this? I don’t think you need this.’ So we’re talking about doing something,” he told reporters Friday. “I want her to have a good life, I don’t want her to have a live like she’s led in the last three days.”

Zacharia started the job on Monday and held her first press briefing on Tuesday, which surprised reporters by lasting under 15 minutes and including only three questions.

When asked if he would maintain her employment, Trump said, “I’m going to let her make that decision.”

“Honestly if I were you I’d reconsider,” he said.

Zacharia has faced questions about her legal credentials, as she calls herself a lawyer but there isn’t a record of her passing the bar exam. Zacharia has said she took the bar exam once, failed, and did not take it again.

“I graduated Pepperdine, got married in the same week, and we had all intent to move out to China,” she told Fox News’ Sean Hannity. “I had already preregistered for the bar exam.”

“And during — basically, during the summer, I knew I would be living in China and the results of the bar were inconsequential, and I sat for it because I didn’t want to have a withdrawal status,” she said. “And then I moved over to China, and where I did get a job in an international practice of a Chinese law firm.”

Elizabeth Mitchell
Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell | White House Correspondent

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell is the White House correspondent for the Daily Signal.


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