Katie Zacharia breaks silence after 5-day White House press secretary stint: ‘I wish more Americans appreciated..’

Katie Zacharia’s brief stint as the White House press secretary has come to its end after less than a week having been stepped into this position.

Zacharia made her first disastrous debut on October 13. But her inaugural press briefing lasted more than 15 minutes, during which she appeared nervous and answered only three questions.

She also faced backlash as she read directly from the notebook, took frequent pauses along with an awkward smile, fumbling and slip of tongue at certain points.

The most awkward moment came when she was asked how she planned to balance her job with raising four children. While talking about her husband, Zacharia accidentally referred to him as the president, before quickly correcting herself and trying to laugh it off.

Although introduced as an attorney by Trump and others, Zacharia claimed during her press briefing that she passed the bar exam "when I was in China." However, under media scrutiny, she admitted she had not passed the bar exam

All these shortcomings drew criticism not only from netizens but also from Trump administration’s officials.

On Friday, President Trump also asked her to reconsider the job following public scrutiny.

"I told her: 'I think you're better off being happy, and I'm not sure you can ever be happy in this ⁠stuff.' There's nothing easy about this stuff," Trump told reporters.

A White House official later confirmed to Fox News that Zacharia is stepping down from her role as press secretary.

After all these developments, Zacharia responded on X and praised President Trump for all his efforts for Americans.

She wrote on X, “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.”

Katie succeeded Karoline Leavitt as the 37th White House Press Secretary under President Donald Trump but some remarked her exit was even faster than Anthony Scaramucci’s 10-day tenure in Trump’s first term.