The reviews are in for President Donald Trump’s new press secretary.
Katie Zacharia, 41, suffered savage reviews from administration insiders and critics alike within minutes of taking the podium as White House press secretary for the first time Tuesday morning.
Zacharia took off with a stumbling start, frequently pausing awkwardly and smiling uncomfortably as she read prepared remarks before White House press correspondents.
Zacharia’s stilted performance on the podium swiftly sparked a torrent of criticism—even among White House officials.
“Getting behind the podium is tough, but she got off on the wrong foot. She needs to get much better, fast. Otherwise, she’ll break Scaramucci’s record,” one administration official told MS NOW’s Jake Traylor, referencing Anthony Scaramucci’s notoriously short-lived stint as White House press secretary.
“Katie Zacharia makes Karoline Leavitt seem like Winston Churchill,” journalist Aaron Rupar said on X.
“She is doing a bad job reading a prepared statement. Her tenure is about to be comedy. The SNL skits might be legendary,” sports radio host Henry Lake wrote.
“Chat-GPT-a** first speech from the new press secretary,” Rolling Stone reporter Nikki McCann Ramirez said.
The conservative commentator and onetime spokesperson for Kristi Noem wrapped up her first press briefing after just 14 minutes, only five of which were spent answering questions from reporters.
The three reporters she called on all came from conservative news outlets: Breitbart’s Nick Gilbertson, Fox News’ Peter Doocy, and Daily Mail’s Elina Shirazi.
Zacharia ended the briefing with a question about her family life. She shares four kids aged six to 12 with her husband Tyler, whom she married in 2011.
“I wanna give my husband an amazing shout-out,” she said. “I adore my family. I love them. They are my priority. They—I, I love being with my kids. The idea of not spending evenings with my kid is—kids are—is completely, uh, unacceptable.”
Zacharia then confused her husband with her boss in an odd slip of the tongue.
“So my president—or excuse me, my husband, uh, that’s a, that’s a good one,” she said with an awkward smile. “My husband is out here for the week because we have two birthdays in our family and we are very, very protective of celebrating birthdays as a family. So he brought the entire crew out here. Bless him. It’s a lot.”
A clip of the slip-up drew taunts online.
“Let’s be patient as she grapples with unfamiliar concepts such as facts and English,” one X user said.
“This has to be a prank,” another added.
“Wow she’s giving First Lady Natalie Harp a run for her money,” a third user chimed in, referring to Trump’s ever-present aide.
Zacharia, who has a history of peddling conspiracy theories, was named White House press secretary just last week.
Bettors have already put their money on when Zacharia will get the boot. On prediction market Kalshi, bettors predicted a 94-percent chance that Zacharia will be out as White House press secretary by Nov. 1st.
