The former president sought another aggressive voice on television. Instead, the woman he hurriedly tapped to replace Karoline Leavitt reportedly left him feeling humiliated and ready to cut her loose.
Insider accounts of Katie Zacharia’s briefing unsettled the president, according to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins. When Trump asked other aides to weigh in on her performance, few were eager to defend her.
Her appearance alongside Sean Hannity, it’s said, sealed her fate. Collins reported that Trump believed Zacharia hadn’t argued his case vigorously enough and recognized she needed to go.
The rapid reversal followed a process that had already tested his patience. Collins reported that Trump pressed to pick Zacharia after growing tired of how long it was taking to replace Leavitt, eager to have more people defending him on TV.
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Another observer wondered whether anyone could replicate her predecessor’s performance: “He’s not going to get another Karoline Leavitt. Bad move putting her on a decoy plane lol.”
Critics quickly latched onto what appeared to be the rationale behind his decision.
“She made Trump look bad so it was the embarrassment she caused him rather than her incompetence that got her fired,” one commentator wrote.
A third sagecracked about aide Natalie Harp’s involvement: “Natalie whispered in Trump’s ear that she had to go lol.”
The fallout contrasted starkly with Zacharia’s upbeat reception.
Leavitt had stepped back almost two months earlier to devote more time to her husband and their two young children. To take her place, Trump turned to a conservative commentator already serving as a senior communications adviser for Trump Media & Technology Group, the outfit behind Truth Social.
Trump described it as his “Great Honor” to appoint Zacharia to succeed “the fabulous Karoline Leavitt.” Zacharia herself replied that following Leavitt “is a high standard, and one worth meeting.”
Initially, much of the online chatter centered on how closely the new hire resembled the woman she replaced.
According to The Daily Beast, Zacharia is 41 and a mother of four, placing her 12 years older than Leavitt. Yet observers comparing their photos side by side on social media said the two looked nearly identical.
Both women sport long blonde waves, wide smiles, and the glossy television-ready look critics have dubbed “Mar-a-Lago face.”
“He has a type, doesn’t he?” one Facebook user commented. Another labeled Trump’s communications team the “Trumpford Wives.”
“How can you tell they’re not the same person?” another user asked on X.
Yet it was Zacharia’s legal credentials that turned her debut into a point of contention.
She earned her law degree from Pepperdine University in 2011, a credential the school confirmed as it celebrated her appointment. Her résumé included communications work for Trump’s social-media venture and appearances on conservative television.
The trouble began when reporters pressed her about passing the bar exam. In her first briefing, she was asked where she had passed it, and Zacharia replied, “When I moved to China.” She later explained that she had misheard the question.
The exchange shifted the focus from the administration’s message to the messenger. Trump had introduced Zacharia as a lawyer, but questions mounted about whether her credentials truly supported that description.
During a subsequent appearance with Sean Hannity, Zacharia confirmed that she had failed the California bar exam and had not retaken it. She also maintained that legal professionals had advised her she could describe herself as a lawyer based on her education and international experience.
For a president who allegedly wanted another forceful TV advocate, the episode produced an awkward reversal: his new spokesperson ended up explaining her own background.
Her appointment had also revived questions about the job’s demands. Leavitt said she left because the role left little room for time with her children. Zacharia had previously attributed her departure from a government communications post to the strain of commuting between Washington and her California home.
She had emerged from a search that had included several rumored contenders, among them Alina Habba, Jason Miller, Anna Kelly and Scott Jennings.
Leavitt, meanwhile, has moved into an on-air contributor role at Fox News. The replacement Trump chose to bolster his televised defenses instead became the focal point of another damaging news cycle.
