Katie Zacharia’s time as White House press secretary was one for the record books. Anthony Scaramucci held the position for just 11 days during President Trump’s first administration, but Zacharia’s tenure lasted only five.
Trump personally selected Zacharia, a little-known communications adviser from his media company, only last week. But her first White House press briefing on Monday lasted just 14 minutes before spiraling into a political crisis, as questions mounted over her legal credentials and the years she spent living in China.
She would never return to the podium.
On Friday, the 41-year-old was called to the White House to meet with the president. Trump addressed her departure with unusual softness.
‘You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to,’ Trump told Zacharia. ‘Honestly if I were you I’d reconsider.’
Allies said Zacharia understood what the meeting meant. She had arrived at the White House prepared for an “ambush.”
Not long after the meeting, White House communications director Steven Cheung confirmed that Zacharia would be “transitioning into a new role that will be announced at a later date.”
The announcement came just days after Cheung had strongly defended her, saying that “up and down the White House, everyone has been thoroughly impressed with Katie in just a few short days on the job.” He had previously dismissed reports to the contrary as “trash.”
On Friday, 41-year-old Zacharia was summoned to meet the president. ‘You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to,’ Trump told her. ‘Honestly if I were you I’d reconsider.’
‘She’ll be remembered as one of the all-time greats,’ Trump concluded in what may have been an ill-judged post on Wednesday.
Although Trump ultimately delivered the message — albeit with kid gloves — the Daily Mail can exclusively reveal that the decision was orchestrated by Cheung’s boss, Trump’s formidable chief of staff, Susie Wiles.
Wiles, known as Trump’s “ice maiden,” had reportedly been bypassed when the president decided to hire Zacharia.
As the controversy intensified throughout the week, headlines focused heavily on whether Zacharia had misrepresented herself as a lawyer. Trump had referred to her as “an attorney,” even though she had failed the bar exam. In an apparent effort to push back against the criticism, the press secretary turned to Fox News, a network generally viewed as friendly toward conservatives.
But during a live appearance Thursday night, Fox News host Sean Hannity caught Zacharia off guard, repeatedly pressing her on the growing controversy.
Hannity told her that her first press briefing — during which she appeared unsteady while reading from a script — had been “widely panned.”
He also questioned her legal background. Zacharia struggled to explain herself, saying, “I knew I would be living in China and the result of the bar would be inconsequential.” After attending law school and failing the bar exam, she lived in Beijing from 2011 to 2013 with her husband, who had taken a job at a private equity firm.
People close to Zacharia said she was especially hurt by the exchange with Hannity, whom she had regarded as an ally.
Nevertheless, she appeared on Fox & Friends the following Friday morning for another scheduled interview.
That appearance proved far from friendly.
CHECK THIS OUT: Was Gamer Living Out a Fantasy World in a Tiger Enclosure?
‘Do you wish you would have disclosed to the president about not passing the bar?’ co-host Lawrence Jones asked at the outset.
The interviews, sources say, hit like a double punch – and the fists belonged to Susie Wiles.
‘Susie gave Fox News the kill order, but Zacharia was an obviously bad choice. This was totally predictable,’ said a senior administration official.
‘Somebody at the White House set her up for a trap in that interview. It only could have been Susie or the president himself. Nobody else is going to be able to make that call to Hannity,’ a second senior administration official told the Daily Mail.
‘When Sean does that, it sends a message that if she can’t handle Fox being a little tough, she’s not going to be able to handle CNN.’
But while the president had been the one to wield the axe, the Daily Mail can exclusively reveal that it was actually Trump’s redoubtable chief of staff, Susie Wiles (left), who orchestrated the execution.
Sources close to Zacharia said she felt particularly wounded by her interview with Sean Hannity, who she had considered an ally.
‘She had Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Three days to figure out how to answer a question about her law degree. And she couldn’t,’ said a third source close to the president.
‘She wasn’t going to hack it as press secretary if it was going to take her three days to explain her resumé. Hannity gave her every chance to pivot and she couldn’t pivot. It’s her fault. It’s not the president’s fault. He’s saddened by this. He actually likes her. He wanted to give her a dignified exit.’
Fox News insiders pushed back on the notion of a ‘kill order’, saying it was clear by the end of the Hannity interview that Zacharia had done herself in.
In a statement a spokesperson for the network said: ‘Sean Hannity decides who he interviews and what he asks his guests, period. That’s been true for three decades, through several administrations, and that authenticity is why he’s been number one for nearly 30 years.’
Zacharia told the Daily Mail: ‘President Trump is such a kind, wonderful, gracious, thoughtful, enthusiastic and hardworking man – I wish more Americans appreciated him. There’s nobody who will ever come close to making America great the way he has and is. It was an honor to work for him.’
Wiles is now said to be once again eyeing her previous first choice to replace Karoline Leavitt, who unexpectedly stepped down as press secretary in August: Scott Jennings, the Trump-friendly CNN contributor who made a name as a lone conservative voice on the liberal network.
A former Trump official confirmed Jennings is now the frontrunner to replace Zacharia. Jennings did not comment.
As the tide quickly turned on Zacharia this week, with some inside the White House openly expressing their doubts, Trump initially defended his decision, praising her bumbling first press briefing as ‘excellent’ on Tuesday.
By Friday morning, the mood had changed, with Politico reporting that, prior to his meeting with Zacharia in which he urged her to step down, Trump had privately told other officials that ‘she had no talent and shouldn’t be on television’.
In public, he kept the kid gloves on.
‘I told her, “I think you’re better off being happy.” And I’m not sure you can ever be happy in this job,’ Trump told reporters. ‘I want her to have a good life.’