Ex-White House press secretary Katie Zacharia had nothing but kind words to say about President Trump hours after she left her post following just five days in the role.
“President Trump is a kind, wonderful, gracious, thoughtful, enthusiastic, and hardworking man. I wish more Americans appreciated him,” she posted on X. “No one will ever make America great the way he has and continues to. It was an honor to work for him.”
The post included a photo of Zacharia smiling while standing next to Trump as he sat at the Resolute Desk inside the Oval Office during her brief tenure, with a map on the president’s desk that had its details blurred out.
It had 7.2 million views as of Saturday morning.
In a sign of the rapid disintegration of her tenure, the post “pinned” to the top of her account Oct. 9 had screen shots of Trump congratulating her on her appointment as press secretary.
She left her post Friday after a pair of shaky interviews on Fox News.
On Thursday, she appeared on Sean Hannity’s program where the host said her first and only White House press briefing had been “widely panned” and questioned her decision to label herself as an “attorney” despite failing to pass the California bar after graduating from law school.
During a Friday morning interview on “Fox & Friends,” she struggled to deliver talking points about the search of Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-Minn.) home and wasn’t able to say when her next press briefing would occur.
Hours later, Trump publicly urged her to reconsider her role, telling the reporters before departing the White House for a rally, “I’ve watched her for years on television, but I said, ‘Is this for you, Katie? Because honestly, you don’t need this.’”
Zacharia isn’t out entirely: a source familiar with the situation said she would be transitioning to a new role, and she was to have dined Friday night with Vice President JD Vance.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Zacharia was sitting with the paper for a White House interview Friday when she was summoned away to learn that her assignment had ended.
She didn’t return to the interview.
Among those mentioned as possible successors is CNN commentator Scott Jennings, who is close to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles.
Asked on air Friday if he was interested in the job, Jennings diverted, saying “I haven’t spoken to anybody about it tonight or today.”
