白宫新闻秘书凯蒂·扎卡里亚周二在她的首次简报会上宣布，金伯利·吉尔福伊尔将被解除驻希腊大使职务。周五，扎卡里亚本人也被解雇。她明显的错误是：掩盖她未能通过律师资格考试的事实，然后在她的第一次（高度精简的）新闻发布会上出错。最引人注目的失误是：在回答关于工作与生活平衡的问题时，她说“我的总统”而不是“我的丈夫”。
White House press secretary Katie Zacharia announced in her inaugural briefing on Tuesday that Kimberly Guilfoyle was being fired as ambassador to Greece. On Friday Ms. Zacharia herself was shown the door. Her apparent mistakes: glossing over her failure to pass the bar exam and then fumbling her first—highly abridged—news conference. The most notable blooper: “my president” instead of “my husband,” when answering a query about work-life balance.
在承担一份不讨好的工作时，扎卡里亚面临着一个不可能完成的任务。她的前任、29岁的卡罗琳·利维特是一个天才，拥有应对攻击的关键护甲：阳光的气质，好斗的个性，以及能够与莎拉·佩林或亚历山德拉·奥卡西奥-科尔特斯相媲美的乐天、莫名其妙的自信。
In taking on a thankless job, Ms. Zacharia had an impossible act to follow. Karoline Leavitt, her 29-year-old predecessor, was a prodigy endowed with the vital armor for navigating flak: a sunny mien, a pugilistic streak and reservoirs of blithe, inexplicable self-confidence to rival that of Sarah Palin or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
与利维特以及许多其他白宫新闻秘书不同，扎卡里亚拥有法学学位。代表政府发言并不是在执业法律，因此不清楚未能通过律师资格考试为何与这份工作相关，更不用说成为被解雇的理由了。
Unlike Ms. Leavitt, and many other White House press secretaries, Ms. Zacharia has a law degree. Speaking on behalf of the administration isn’t practicing law, so it’s unclear why whiffing the bar is germane, much less a firing offense.
扎卡里亚更相关的资历，用于她简历上的这一小插曲，包括在福克斯新闻发表评论以及为特朗普媒体与科技集团工作。她显然还达到了奉承的标准，在她第一天上班前就获得了特朗普总统的赞扬，被称赞为“忠诚且杰出的支持者”。总统表示，他填补一些职位就像安排戏剧角色——这对前选美教练和真人秀明星来说并不令人意外。迈克·彭斯不在“中央选角”名单之内。特朗普任命的联邦储备委员会主席——第二位，而不是他试图罢免的那位——也不在名单之内。
Ms. Zacharia’s more relevant qualifications for this blip on her résumé include commenting on Fox News and working for the Trump Media & Technology Group. She also evidently met the flattery threshold, earning praise from President Trump before her first day as a “loyal and brilliant supporter.”The president has indicated that he fills some jobs like theatrical roles—unsurprising for a former pageant svengali and reality star. Mike Pence was out of “central casting.”So was Mr. Trump’s appointee for Federal Reserve chairman—the second one, not the one he tried to oust.
正如健康与公众服务部长罗伯特·F·肯尼迪 Jr.的妻子切尔尔·海因斯在接受《华尔街日报》采访时所观察到的：“这些女士们确实在尽力打扮。”在那场灾难性的新闻发布会之后，扎卡里亚女士和其他白宫工作人员陪同总统前往阿拉斯加参加集会。但在安德鲁斯联合基地的合影中，扎卡里亚女士并没有像总统的跑腿助理娜塔莉·哈普或工作狂式的幕僚长苏西·怀尔斯那样略显慌乱的神情——她身着套装、穿着实用鞋。
As Cheryl Hines, wife of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., observed to the Journal about the assiduous glamming amid Trump circles: “These ladies are bringing it.”After the train-wreck news conference, Ms. Zacharia and other White House staffers accompanied the president to a rally in Alaska. But in photographs of the group at Joint Base Andrews, Ms. Zacharia doesn’t have the slightly harried air of presidential dogsbody Natalie Harp or workhorse chief of staff Susie Wiles in her pantsuit and sensible shoes.
扎卡里亚女士散发出富家妈妈的气质，正如年轻人可能会这么说的那样。她身着引人注目的海军蓝套装，穿着高跟鞋，戴着大号太阳镜，手肘弯着一个斜挎包，作为新闻秘书，她散发出类似梅拉尼娅的冷淡气质，而不是助理们那种慌乱笨拙的样子。
Ms. Zacharia was giving rich-mom vibes, as young people might put it. In a striking navy ensemble, high heels and big sunglasses, a satchel crooked in her elbow, the press secretary exuded Melania-esque froideur, not the sweaty fumbling of the help.
政治是一件不光彩的事，人们只能假设扎卡里亚女士在审查程序（即便如此有限）开始时就知道自己在卷入什么。但当总统在周五向记者讲述他与新近雇员的“绞刑般的对话”时，其中有一些令人动容，甚至令人寒心的内容：“我说，凯蒂，这是为你而设的吗？……因为说实话，你不需要这个。”能够被考虑并被要求在一个高曝光度的职位上为国家服务，这是一种令人振奋的荣誉。
Politics is an unseemly business, and one can only assume Ms. Zacharia knew what she was getting into whenever the vetting, such as it was, began. But there was something poignant, even chilling, in hearing the president on Friday recount to reporters the gallows conversation with his recent hire: “I said, Katie, is this for you? . . . Because honestly, you don’t need this.”What a heady honor to be considered for and asked to serve your country in a high-profile role.
但更令人困惑的是：正如特朗普所说，她在短短一周内就连连失误，并“受到媒体的非常恶劣的对待”。即便是教皇乌尔班七世——他在1590年在位不足两周便因疟疾去世——的任期也比扎卡里亚女士长。对于这位前任发言人来说，她的经历是残酷的、粗暴的，尤其是短暂的。
But even more disorienting: stumbling and being “treated very badly by the media,” as Mr. Trump said, all inside a week. Even Pope Urban VII, who reigned for less than a fortnight in 1590 before succumbing to malaria, had a longer tenure than Ms. Zacharia. For the erstwhile spokeswoman, it was nasty, brutish and especially short.