Katie Zacharia struggled at her debut White House press conference on Tuesday, and took only three questions Credit Corum Poppy Wood US Correspondent Show biography Based in Washington, Poppy has led investigations into Jeffrey Epstein. As Education Editor in London, she reported on Chinese influence on British and overseas schools and universities 6:30pm BST Donald Trump has sacked his new White House press secretary just five days into the role.

It came moments after the president told reporters on Friday: “Maybe the White House spokeswoman role is not for [Katie] Zacharia.”Speaking to the press after landing in Georgia for a rally, Mr Trump said he had spoken to Mrs Zacharia “just two minutes ago” and told her “you don’t have to do this”. Mrs Zacharia said it was “an honour” to work for Mr Trump.

Posting on X on Friday night, she said: “President Trump is such a kind, wonderful, gracious, thoughtful, enthusiastic, and hardworking man.

“There’s nobody who will ever come close to making America great the way he has and is.”Her departure will beat the brevity of service record set by Anthony Scaramucci, Mr Trump’s former communications director, who was sacked after 11 days. After the news of Mrs Zacharia’s sacking, he posted on Records are made to be broken. But I take no pleasure in other people's pain.

October 16, 2026 It is also the latest in a string of female departures from Mr Trump’s inner circle in the past few months. As news of Mrs Zacharia’s sacking came out, Kristi Noem, the former homeland security secretary who was fired in March, announced that her post as a special envoy had come to an end.

Kimberly Guilfoyle was asked to resign as US ambassador to Greece earlier this week.

It follows significant scrutiny over Mrs Zacharia in the past few days, with her debut press conference getting off to a shaky start on Tuesday as she stuttered through a scripted speech and took just three questions from journalists.

She has also faced scrutiny over her legal qualifications after claiming to be a practising lawyer and later admitting she failed the bar exam the only time she took it in the US.

Donald Trump told reporters he had spoken to Katie Zacharia and said ’you don’t have to do this’ Getty/Andrew Harnik Mr Trump said his press secretary had been “treated very badly by the media” and that he had privately consoled her by advising that she did not have to stay on.

“I said, ‘Katie, is this for you?’ Because, you know, she’s been treated very rough. And she’s a nice person,” Mr Trump told reporters.

“I’ve watched her for years on television, but I said, ‘Is this for you, Katie? Because honestly, you don’t need this.’”Mrs Zacharia had blamed the White House for the media scrutiny over whether she was a qualified lawyer. In an interview defending her CV on Friday, Mrs Zacharia said “those questions” about her legal background “weren’t asked” by the White House.

“I’m being hired as White House press secretary and not White House counsel,” she told Fox News. “The reason I was hired was to represent the president in the press.”CNN reported that Mr Trump was embarrassed by Mrs Zacharia following her turbulent debut press conference, and that the subsequent Fox News interview marked the final straw.

The US President “knew she needed to go” after Mrs Zacharia failed to defend him in her on-air appearance on Thursday night, the outlet reported Confusion over legal qualifications In a separate interview with Fox News on Thursday night, Mrs Zacharia also implied that she had been hired at short notice and had been given too little time to prepare for her first appearance.

In the US, somebody must pass the bar exam to call themselves an attorney. Asked by reporters on Tuesday where she took the exam, Mrs Zacharia said: “When I moved to China.”She later said she misheard the question and thought she was being asked where she went after university.

She said she had “consulted for a very long time with many people in the field” and was told she could call herself a lawyer in the US but not an attorney. The two terms are often used interchangeably in the US.

Multiple online biographies for Mrs Zacharia describe her as an “attorney”, and Mr Trump used the word in his announcement of her appointment last week.

Mrs Zacharia, who was the president’s replacement for Karoline Leavitt, who resigned as press secretary in August, has since clarified that she graduated with a law degree from Pepperdine University in California but failed the bar exam at the time.

Mr Trump chose Ms Zacharia as his replacement for Karoline Leavitt Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Mr Trump has often ridiculed his political opponents who have failed the high-stakes legal test, including Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris, who both passed the exam after retaking it.

Mrs Zacharia said she married and moved to China with her husband, Tyler Zacharia, a film executive, before she had a chance to resit the bar exam. She claims to have worked as an associate in the international practice team at Zhong Lun, one of China’s biggest law firms, during the couple’s two-year stint in Beijing.

Gary Gao, a partner at Zhong Lun based in Shanghai, told The New York Times that the firm often hires foreigners for language assistance, but that “they are not practising Chinese law at any time” and that their work is more akin to a paid internship.

Mrs Zacharia also faced scrutiny over her relationship with the press, after taking just three questions during her inaugural White House appearance on Tuesday. The questions were from Breitbart, Fox News, and the Daily Mail – all Right-leaning publications.

She defended her approach in her interview with Fox News on Thursday night, claiming that the Daily Mail was not a conservative outlet. ‘I really stepped up to the plate’

“I really stepped up to the plate to do the press conference,” Mrs Zacharia said. “I received briefing materials in the morning of Tuesday, and I went to deliver all of the great results that President Trump is delivering for the American people… And then I took several questions.

“They’ve said I only took questions from conservative outlets. However, the Daily Mail is not known to be a conservative outlet or friendly to conservative. So I do challenge that narrative.”Her appointment came during a period of heightened animosity between the Trump administration and the press, and as the Republican Party braced for potentially bruising midterm election results in November.

Mr Trump banned three media outlets from the White House grounds in September, triggering a week-long boycott of the administration by US broadcasters. The ban was overturned after a judge forced the outlets – CNN, MS Now and Politico – to be let back in.

The Telegraph understands that Mrs Zacharia and her family will have dinner on Friday night with JD Vance, the vice president, and his wife, Usha Vance.

A source familiar with the plans said the dinner would take place at the vice-president’s residence at the Naval Observatory in Washington and that the administration remained fond of Mrs Zacharia.