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President Donald Trump’s new White House press secretary, Katie Zacharia, held an unusually short first briefing for the media Tuesday, concluding after less than 15 minutes and calling on just three reporters, all from conservative outlets.
Zacharia spent more than half of that time reading remarks before she took questions from Breitbart, Fox News and the Daily Mail. It was one of the shortest White House press briefings in recent history.
In response to the Daily Mail, she also revealed that the administration has asked Kimberly Guilfoyle, the U.S. ambassador to Greece, to resign following allegations of misconduct.
Zacharia spent most of her remarks touting Trump’s policies and framed her new position as a job to “amplify” him, which she said she’d done as a conservative commentator. She referred to those appearances, telling reporters that she hopes to “take that into an official capacity.”
Now, Zacharia said, she hopes to “only build on, only amplify and only multiply, to the extent possible, all of the wins” that Trump is “making for Americans, for Americans to understand how much has changed in this brief period of time, what he’s been able to accomplish.”
“My goal is to be able to communicate that in complete tandem with the president, as he is his own best spokesperson and will absolutely be leading the way with that,” she added.
Asked by Fox News whether the U.S. has stopped sharing intelligence with Ukraine, she said she would “have to get back to you on that.”
Zacharia is stepping into the role as the top White House spokesperson in the final weeks before the midterm elections, as Trump is embarking on a series of campaign trips to shore up his base. She said Trump would continue his midterm “blitz,” pointing to future stops in Kentucky, Georgia and Florida.
At the same time, voters are souring on Trump’s performance, which he has chalked up to a public relations issue. Last month, an NBC News poll found that 41% of registered voters approved of his performance, a second-term low.
The same poll found that voters largely disapprove of his handling of the economy. The administration hasn’t shown a path to ending the Iran war, which has raised fuel prices and contributed to inflation. And in recent days, some Republican candidates in battleground races have been breaking with him on his handling of tariffs and the war.
Trump said at a recent rally in Oklahoma that the administration is “not doing a good job of public relations.” At a separate event, he said the administration was “doing an extremely poor job of promotion,” despite doing an “extremely great job of running the country.”
Zacharia painted a rosy picture of Trump’s popularity, describing the Ohio venue of his rally Monday as “overflowing with enthusiasm.” Attendance at his rallies is at “record highs as enthusiastic, hardworking Americans are lining up and packing arenas to support President Trump and Republicans,” she said.
NBC News has reported that Trump has been speaking in smaller venues that aren’t filled.
Zacharia also expressed her views on the shifting media landscape and discussed balancing her family life in response to other questions. She said she wanted to “expand” on the new media seat “to the extent possible,” referring to predecessor Karoline Leavitt’s decision to include a seat in the briefing room for nontraditional media. Breitbart held the seat Tuesday.
Leavitt said in August that she was leaving the administration to spend more time with her family. Asked about balancing the job with her own family in California, Zacharia said her husband and four children are moving to the Washington area.
“I adore my family. I love them. They are my priority,” she said. “I love being with my kids. The idea of not spending evenings with my kids is completely unacceptable.”
She then accidentally referred to her husband as “my president” before she corrected herself and said he would be in Washington for the week.
Trump announced Friday that he was tapping Zacharia to fill the position. She had been a senior communications adviser for Trump Media & Technology Group.
Zacharia has said multiple times that she is a lawyer and that she practiced in China.
After the news conference, as Trump prepared to depart the White House, a reporter asked Zacharia what state she passed the bar exam in. Zacharia said she “moved to China.” Her LinkedIn account says she worked at Zhong Lun Law Firm from 2011 to 2013. It also says she was “general counsel” for Fix California, which was founded by Trump ally Ric Grenell.
Zacharia later said in a statement: “I practiced international transaction law, with all the appropriate credentials.”
Asked whether she had passed the bar exam, which is required in the U.S. to practice law, a White House official didn’t directly respond to the question.
“She moved to China with her husband after graduating Pepperdine Caruso School of Law because of his job at an American private equity firm,” the official said. “In China, she worked on international transaction law until they moved back to the states.”
A spokesperson for the State Bar of California confirmed to NBC News that the state has no record of Zacharia’s being licensed to practice in California, saying she has not “appeared on a California bar exam pass list.”
In a Fox News interview over the weekend, Zacharia said she was looking forward to “working for President Trump,” adding, “This job is not about me.”
“This job is about him and how he wants to communicate to the American people,” she said Saturday.
Megan Brand is a politics reporter for NBC News.
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