Former White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt offered a pointed assessment of Katie Zacharia’s brief, week-long time in the position she once held.
“The job obviously was not for her, but we wish her and her family well,” Leavitt told Fox News Digital backstage during a Turning Point USA campus tour event at California Polytechnic State University.
Leavitt said President Trump was still weighing potential candidates for the role and confirmed that she had shared her own experience to help identify a suitable successor.
Speaking to students, Leavitt also described the intensive preparation behind her first White House press briefing after becoming President Donald Trump’s first press secretary of his second term.
“I prepared like heck for that first briefing,” Leavitt said.
“I poured myself into my preparation. I read, I studied, I talked to every Cabinet member, I talked to the president. I just absorbed as much information as this noggin up here could.”
Her remarks came after Zacharia’s White House tenure ended only days after her first appearance behind the briefing-room podium, where her performance drew widespread criticism.
Trump announced Zacharia’s appointment on October 9, two days after initially approaching her about the position.
“The job obviously was not for her, but we wish her and her family well,” former White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said of her successor, Katie Zacharia
Zacharia’s first briefing lasted only 14 minutes and included questions from three reporters
Trump announced Leavitt as his press secretary on November 15, 2024, while he was still president-elect. She held her first White House briefing on January 28, 2025, more than two months after the appointment was revealed
Zacharia formally started the job on October 12 and met the White House press corps for the first time the next day.
The debut ended after roughly 14 minutes, with just three journalists asking questions.
Trump nevertheless defended the performance, telling reporters, “I thought she did excellent. She did very good.”
The appointment soon became the subject of intense discussion, particularly over Zacharia’s limited time to prepare and her lack of experience dealing with the White House press corps.
Questions also emerged about Zacharia’s legal background after reports noted that she did not pass the California bar exam in 2011.
Afterward, she relocated to Beijing with her husband and took a position at a Chinese law firm.
Although she never passed the bar exam, Zacharia regularly appeared on television as a legal analyst, discussing legal and political matters while describing herself as a lawyer.
The fallout from her difficult debut continued during an appearance on Sean Hannity’s Fox News program on October 15. Within hours, she was removed from the position.
Hannity questioned her aggressively about the heavily criticized briefing and challenged her repeated use of the title “lawyer” despite her failure to pass the California bar exam.
He challenged her explanation for the short briefing, asking: ‘Why only three questions in 14 minutes?’ before warning her that the White House briefing room would ‘never be a friendly room to you.’
Zacharia defended herself by blaming the whirlwind hiring process and lack of preparation time, but the combative interview added to the scrutiny surrounding her brief tenure.
As Leavitt reflects upon her first briefing, the lack of preparation on Zacharia’s end gave a major disadvantage.
Trump announced Leavitt’s appointment on November 15, 2024, while he was still president-elect.
She didn’t deliver her first White House press briefing until January 28, 2025, giving her more than two months between the announcement and her debut.
Leavitt, who was 27 when she took the job, became the youngest White House press secretary in history.
Her first briefing lasted around 46 minutes, during which she took questions on the administration’s agenda and media access.
Leavitt announced her departure from the role on August 12, attributing the decision to wanting to spend more time with her growing family.
Trump praised Leavitt as one of his most trusted aides and said he understood her decision to spend more time with her family.
She also agreed to remain an outside adviser to the president.
Now, however, Leavitt is preparing for a return to the national spotlight.
Fox News announced on October 5 that she would join the network as an on-air contributor, providing political analysis and commentary across its platforms beginning November 1.
