Trump Fires His Fake Lawyer Press Secretary After Just Five Days

Katie Zacharia has been fired as White House press secretary after less than one week on the job, The New York Times reported Friday, citing three anonymous sources. She hosted one 14-minute press briefing, took 3 questions, and will go down in history as the press secretary with the shortest tenure to date.

Fox News also reported that Zacharia would be “transitioning out” of the job, though it’s unclear what exactly that means.

Zacharia has faced intense media scrutiny and blowback this week regarding her bogus legal credentials, train-wreck first press briefing, and a disastrous appearance on Fox News’s Hannity where she tried to defend calling herself a “lawyer” but not an “attorney.”

The news of her exit comes shortly after President Donald Trump told reporters that the media was treating Zacharia “nastily” but admitted he had suggested she “reconsider” the position.

“I said, ‘Katie, you don’t have do this if you don’t wanna.’ She said, ‘This is a lot tougher.’ I said, ‘Welcome to the world of Trump.’”

“Katie, do you need this? I don’t think you need this,” the president said he told her.

“I said to her, honestly if I were you, I’d reconsider. You think about it, but I would reconsider.”

CNN White House reporter Kaitlan Collins reported that Trump was “embarrassed by the coverage of Zacharia’s briefing and when he polled other aides about her, Zacharia had few allies willing to stand up for her or defend her performance.”

“The main reason he rushed to select her after growing irritated with how long the process was taking to replace Karoline Leavitt was because he wanted more people defending him on TV,” Collins added. “When she failed to do so in a sufficient way with Sean Hannity, Trump said he knew she needed to go.”

Zacharia has spent much of her five days as press secretary attempting to justify calling herself a “lawyer,” despite never having passed the bar exam. She may face investigation in the state of California for purportedly calling herself a “lawyer” without a license after a bar complaint was filed Wednesday.

“Records are made to be broken. But I take no pleasure in other people’s pain,” ex–Trump communications director Antony Scaramucci wrote on X following Zacharia’s termination. Scaramucci stood behind the White House briefing room podium in Trump’s first term for a then-record 11 days, from July 21 to July 31, 2017. Zacharia lasted about 0.4 percent of that time.

Before the news of her firing, reporters asked the president if Zacharia would remain in his administration. “In some form, but maybe a more pleasant form,” he said.

“I just want her to be happy,” he added.

This story has been updated.

Editor’s Pick:

Canadians may be extremely divided, but there is one thing they can all agree on: They don’t like Donald Trump.

Ahead of a referendum vote that could potentially put Alberta on the path toward independence, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney urged province residents at a rally in Calgary Thursday night to remain united in the face of pressure from foreign actors.

“The world has become more dangerous and divided,” Carney said. “Some outside our borders are working to break us so they can own us.”

Carney’s biggest moment of the night was when he spoke about fast-tracking the Pacific Link pipeline, formerly the West Coast Pipeline, connecting oil-rich Alberta to British Columbia.

The prime minister promised that the pipeline would reduce Canada’s dependence on the United States—and the crowd exploded into cheers.

“Careful, they might think that’s election interference. A little touchy,” Carney joked, as the audience laughed and cheered. “We’re not. We’re getting on with it. We are getting on with it.”

the crowd absolutely erupts when Carney says the Pacific Link pipeline will reduce Canada's dependence on the U.S. Mark Carney: "Careful. They might think that's election interference. They're a little touchy down there. We're not. We're getting on with it." https://t.co/0hwZZg0BGv
— Scott Robertson (@sarobertson_) October 16, 2026

It was a major jab—one that is sure to get under Trump’s skin. As it stands, his rallies are more likely to devolve into fistfights than standing ovations.

Since Trump launched his trade war against America’s closest neighbor—leveling tariffs of up to 50 percent on hundreds of goods—relations have been icy, and keep getting icier. The White House has issued a torrent of threats, including promises to use “economic force” to annex Canada, and hints at other more direct methods, such as forced annexation. But Carney has already begun looking to expand the country’s trade partnerships in Europe.

Read more about Carney:

Republican Representative Andy Harris is defending his threat to have a student journalist arrested following a disastrous debate earlier this week.

Baltimore TV station Fox 45 asked the Maryland congressman about how he flipped out at Capital News Service reporter Cat Murphy, a student at the University of Maryland, for filming him answering questions from reporters, even though other reporters were filming him too. Harris doubled down on the way he treated Murphy.

“Look the bottom line is, it’s not very newsworthy that the liberal media badgers a conservative politician. What was newsworthy is that I actually pushed back against it,” Harris said to Fox’s Mikenzie Frost. “She actually started by criticizing the way that press gaggle was being conducted. That’s not the role of a journalist, and what I did in the end is just say, ‘Look, this is all done’ and just left.”

NEW: Congressman Andy Harris joined me on @FOX45InDepth and I questioned him about his viral clash with Cat Murphy, the University of Maryland journalist. Harris defended his actions. https://t.co/FNO96iJZZI
— Mikenzie Frost (@MikenzieFrost) October 15, 2026

Frost pointed out that Harris left out some details about threatening to have Murphy arrested over a false interpretation of Maryland’s two-party consent law on recordings.

“Oh, there is clearly a need for two-party consent, but it would have applied to everyone. That’s why, in the end, I just left everyone and their cameras and left the room,” Harris replied. When Frost asked if Harris thought he owed Murphy an apology, he said if she called him, he’d tell her that her failure to ask for his permission was what bothered him.

“She criticized the way I was conducting the news conference. She’s a journalism student, I think she should realize that’s not really your purpose, that’s not your purpose to attempt to run a press conference,” Harris said, adding that “she was telling me how to do my job” and continuing to blame the liberal media for “badgering a conservative politician.”

It’s pretty clear that Harris, who has been in office since 2011, is out of touch with his constituents and his state’s own recording laws. The press gaggle around him was a public event with multiple journalists recording it, which means the two-party consent law doesn’t apply. Threatening to have any journalist arrested, let alone a college student, is a sign that he doesn’t respect the right to a free press and can’t handle any pushback. It’s obvious why Harris hasn’t held an in-persontown hall since2023.

Reminder about how the debate audience laughed at him:

Rudy Giuliani’s legal defense fund has spent $1.2 million throughout the 2026 election cycle—but the vast majority of it hasn’t gone to legal fees.

Instead, the former Trump adviser has spent his money on fundraising consultants, blowing $442,000 on a contract with the Texas-based fundraising service provider American Caging and $227,000 on a contract with the Virginia-based Rockwell Solutions, The Washington Sun reported Friday.

Just $57,700 was paid to Gessler Blue Law in March, according to listed PAC expenditures.

Nearly all of the fund’s donors are retirees, according to Federal Election Commission data.

Giuliani was once a beloved fixture of the Big Apple, earning the title “mob-buster” as a vicious U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York in the 1980s. He later gained the moniker “America’s mayor” for seeing the city through the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

But the fading star lost a lot of that adoration when he saddled his political dreams on Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential race, closely aligning himself with the MAGA movement and its myriad political conspiracies.

Since then, Giuliani has served as an interchangeable mouthpiece to communicate Trump’s whims—a choice that has bled him dry. He spread baseless accusations of ballot manipulation about Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, a mother-daughter duo of election workers in Georgia, in the wake of the 2020 election. That decision cost Giuliani $150 million in damages (which he tried and failed to worm his way out of), his Manhattan penthouse, and his Mercedes convertible, and almost forced him to give up his Florida condominium.

Giuliani was also indicted—and pardoned—for his alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia and Arizona. Over the course of 2024, the former Trump attorney unsuccessfully filed for bankruptcy, lost his accountant over his insurmountable debts, was legally disbarred, and had his WABC radio show canceled for spewing 2020 election lies.

He also begged Trump for help settling his seven-figure legal fees, though Trump reportedly refused.

Giuliani even started his own coffee brand, “Rudy Coffee,” in an effort to funnel in some extra cash to offset the enormous costs of his unwavering MAGA allegiance. He ultimately lost his bankruptcy case due to his outlandish spending habits, with the presiding New York judge branding the former city mayor a “recalcitrant debtor.”

The 82-year-old was on a mechanical ventilator in a Florida ICU earlier this year after being diagnosed with pneumonia. He recovered and was released in May.

Read more about Giuliani:

The president’s once-unassailable ice maiden is melting.

As Republicans brace for a midterm election blue wave, Donald Trump is looking for someone to blame. Enter: Susie Wiles. The White House chief of staff is reportedly on the brink of losing her job, according to insiders that spoke with Zeteo Friday.

One top Trump adviser told the progressive news outlet that Wiles is “in some deep shit.”

The confirmation follows reporting from Politico, which revealed in its morning newsletter Thursday that Trump has been ringing his allies for their opinions on Wiles’s potential successor—and the reviews of Wiles’s performance have not been good.

“She’s burned a lot of people,” a Republican operative close to the White House told Politico.

One senior elected Republican official who fielded Trump’s call told the digital newsroom that the president had raised “the first honest questions about Susie.”

Possible replacements include deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller or—as a left-field option—Randy Levine, the president of the New York Yankees, insiders told Politico. Other options extend to U.S. envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, real estate developer turned federal housing director Bill Pulte, and ousted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Still, Trump shied away from committing to the turnover, ardently defending Wiles in a statement.

“TOTAL FAKE NEWS Politico doesn’t care about facts, integrity, or honest journalism—it’s why I kicked them out of the White House!” the president told Politico. “Susie Wiles is my loyal and longest serving Chief of Staff—there is a reason for that. She has been with me since the beginning, is my trusted advisor, and has my COMPLETE confidence.”

Trump reportedly “blew up” after his “human printer,” Natalie Harp, printed out copies of the Politico report for him later Thursday. The briefing sent the president into a full-blown “freakout,” according to three sources that spoke with Politico afterward. Wiles and her team “burn[ed] up phones around town” attempting to settle the situation.

“The White House is in a state of panic. Susie is looking over her shoulder, trying to solicit people to go out and say good things about her and her team and make it seem like everything is fine. It’s not,” a person close to the president told Politico.

Read more about Wiles:

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