New White House press secretary Katie Zakaria will resign after just five days in the face of criticism over her performance, a White House official confirmed to CNBC on Friday.
Early Friday afternoon, President Donald Trump told reporters he had just suggested that Zakaria resign.
“I just talked to her about it, and she said, ‘Katie, is this for you?'” Trump said outside the White House.
“‘If I were you, I would reconsider,'” the president reportedly told Zakaria.
A White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the shakeup, confirmed a Fox News report that Zakaria was “transitioning” from the role of press secretary.
Zakaria has been in the Trump administration for just five days, which is shorter than Anthony Scaramucci, who served as White House communications director in 2017, for less than 11 days. The period became jokingly known as the “Scaramucci” and was used to measure the length of time for other short-term officials.
By that measure, Zakaria had half the lifespan of Scaramucci.
“Records are meant to be broken, but I don’t take pleasure in the pain of others,” Scaramucci said in an X post late Friday.
Zakaria, a conservative commentator who worked for the Trump Media & Technology Group, had faced widespread criticism in the days since leading a brief and erratic initial press conference. She also came under intense scrutiny for her legal history.
President Trump spoke to reporters before heading to Georgia for a political rally in hopes of boosting the Republican Party’s chances with 18 days until the midterm elections.
But Trump’s efforts to sell his policies have been disrupted in part by Zakaria’s first and only press conference on Tuesday, which he cut short after making restraining remarks and taking questions from just three reporters.
In the less than six minutes he spent answering questions, Zakaria revealed that Kimberly Guilfoyle, the US ambassador to Greece, had been asked to resign. This resignation and that of Zakaria follow a number of other senior female officials in the Trump administration who have resigned or been fired in recent months.
“You know, she’s been treated very roughly, and she’s a good person,” Trump said of Zakaria outside the White House.
He accused the media of treating Zakaria “very badly,” and said even Fox News TV host Sean Hannity, an administration supporter, was “a little harsh” on Zakaria during an appearance on his show Thursday night.
After calling Zakaria’s debut press conference “widely condemned,” Hannity asked about past claims about her practice, given reports that she never passed the bar exam. Zakaria defends himself as a lawyer, calling himself a “lawyer” to distinguish himself from that label.
Hannity pointed out that Zakaria had identified himself as a lawyer in several social media posts. “I believe it was a retweet. I have corrected the record,” she replied.
President Trump referred to Zakaria as a “lawyer” in an Oct. 9 Truth Social post announcing his selection to replace Caroline Leavitt, who left the Trump administration at the end of August. Zakaria’s first day was Columbus Day.
“I would say she has been treated pretty badly,” Trump said of Zakaria in remarks Friday. “And I just said to Katie two minutes ago, ‘Katie, look, you don’t have to do it if you don’t want to.'”
When asked if he would allow her to continue serving, President Trump said, “I’m going to leave that decision up to her.”
