- October 17, 2026
‘Katie, Do You Need This?’: What Trump Said To White House Press Secretary Before She Was Fired
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Even before the White House confirmed Katie Zacharia’s exit, US President Donald Trump said he had questioned whether the job was worth the trouble
US President Donald Trump with Katie Zacharia. (Image via X: @KatieZacharia)
Even before the White House confirmed Katie Zacharia’s exit, US President Donald Trump said he had questioned whether the job was worth the trouble.
“I said, ‘Katie, do you need this? I don’t think you need this,’” Trump told reporters on Friday as he recalled a conversation he had with the press secretary, whose tenure came to an abrupt end almost as soon as it began.
Trump made the remarks after Zacharia’s exit following three days of intense media scrutiny, suggesting that the demands of the job might not be worth the personal cost.
“I told her, I think you’re better off being happy,” he said. “I want her to have a good life. I don’t want her to have a life like she’s led the last three days.”
On Friday, White House officials confirmed to the international news agency Reuters that Katie Zacharia was being fired in less than a week after taking up the role. She was appointed as the White House press secretary months after Karoline Leavitt’s exit.
‘If I Were You, I’d Reconsider’
Although Trump said he would speak to Zacharia before arriving at a conclusion, he signalled that her job was already in jeopardy.
“I told her honestly, ‘If I were you, I’d reconsider … think about it. But I would reconsider,’” he said.
Trump: “I told Katie that in my opinion she was treated very very unfairly by the news. Let’s call it the fake news. I said, ‘Katie, do you need this? I don’t think you need this.’ We’re talking about doing something. I want her to have a good life. She’s being brutalized by the media.”— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 16, 2026
Trump also expressed his strong displeasure over the media scrutiny surrounding Katie Zacharia.
“I told Katie that in my opinion she was treated very very unfairly by the news. Let’s call it the fake news. We’re talking about doing something. I want her to have a good life. She’s being brutalized by the media”, he said.
The US President also recalled questioning Zacharia if she could be happy in the role. “I’m not sure you could ever be happy in this job. There’s nothing easy about this job”.
When asked whether he was upset that Zacharia had not revealed that she failed the bar examination, Trump said, “Well, I wasn’t hiring her to be a lawyer. I was hiring her to be a press secretary”.
Katie Zacharia’s Exit
Katie Zacharia was at the receiving end of intense backlash after a lackluster press briefing performance.
Although she has long described herself as a lawyer, neither she nor the White House has provided any evidence that she passed a bar examination in any US state or in China, where she worked for a large law firm years back.
After her exit as White House press secretary, Zacharia praised Trump, describing him as “kind, wonderful, gracious, thoughtful, enthusiastic, and hardworking”.
Writing on X, she said, “President Trump is a kind, wonderful, gracious, thoughtful, enthusiastic, and hardworking man. I wish more Americans appreciated him. No one will ever make America great the way he has and continues to. It was an honor to work for him.”
Quick Answers
Ask News18Katie Zacharia’s tenure as White House press secretary came to an abrupt end after just five days in the role.
Ask News18About the Author
A Journalism graduate, Meemansa Shekhawat is a sub-editor at News18. Driven by a keen interest in news, she is a passionate writer with specialisation in national and international affairs. You can re…Read More
October 17, 2026, 08:34 IST
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