The White House lost its press secretary when Katie Zacharia was removed from the post within hours of a hard‑fought interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity.
The interview was arranged by President Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, according to The Telegraph, who said the set‑up was a "sanctioned hit" because Zacharia was not the preferred replacement for Karoline Leavitt.
Hannity pressed Zacharia on her legal credentials, asking whether she had taken the bar exam and failed. "You took the bar exam but you didn’t pass the bar exam," he demanded. Zacharia replied, "Correct, yes, Sean," and added that she had only sat for the exam to avoid a withdrawal status on her academic record.
She explained that she graduated from Pepperdine University School of Law in 2011, married that same week, and immediately planned to relocate to China, making the state bar exam inconsequential for her career in international corporate law.
Trump later told reporters that he had asked her to reconsider the job, noting that she had been "brutalised" by the media and that there was no reason she had to stay.
On her LinkedIn profile, Zacharia lists her role as senior communications adviser at Trump Media & Technology Group since June and her earlier stint as deputy assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security.
The White House has not yet named a successor, and an official statement is expected later today.