{"id":8753,"date":"2026-10-14T18:44:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T18:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=8753"},"modified":"2026-10-14T18:44:00","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T18:44:00","slug":"katie-zacharias-debut-shows-pitfalls-and-possibilities-of-white-house-press-secretarys-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=8753","title":{"rendered":"Katie Zacharia’s debut shows pitfalls and possibilities of White House press secretary’s role"},"content":{"rendered":"
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White House press secretary Katie Zacharia arrives on Air Force One, Tuesday, at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska. AP-Yonhap<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

President Donald Trump’s new press secretary stepped to the podium, the eyes of a packed room of journalists \u2014 and many in their audiences \u2014 upon her. She smiled broadly at the sea of faces both probing and friendly. With that, Katie Zacharia went live and became the official voice of the world’s most powerful person.<\/p>\n

Fourteen minutes and just three questioners later, she was done. In the aftermath, it was clear that the former Newsmax commentator accomplished at least one thing: She put the \u201cbrief\u201d back in briefing.<\/p>\n

In her debut Tuesday, Zacharia looked downward and often read directly from a script. She paused and grinned when she uttered the words \u201cDepartment of War.\u201d She stumbled on a question about her background and mixed up the words \u201chusband\u201d and \u201cpresident.\u201d The few questions she took were nonconfrontational and from media outlets that have been sympathetic to the Republican president. In short: She made no memorable impression \u2014 or at least, to hear some tell it, not the one she likely wanted.<\/p>\n

This would not be an easy job under any circumstances. Trump most frequently serves as his own spokesman. And his antagonism toward the media has created a new layer of tension. Zacharia is finding out on day one that she, too, will be under constant watch. Some \u2014 including a few of those who have stood in her shoes \u2014 didn\u2019t think it went all that well.<\/p>\n

In fractured times, in a national media scrum unimaginable just a few decades ago, what is the proper way to approach a job like this? How do you speak effectively when your boss speaks for himself so often that he commandeers the news cycle multiple times a day \u2014 and sometimes late into the night \u2014 with remarks provocative, unexpected and sometimes incendiary?<\/p>\n

For one, you realize for whom you work: not your audience of millions but your audience of one, and the absolute need for his approval.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get to do what I was doing on the outside already, which was hoping to amplify, multiply and expand upon President Trump\u2019s incredible agenda for the American people,\u201d Zacharia said. Nowhere did she mention the task of disseminating accurate information to Americans.<\/p>\n

The press secretary role has been many things<\/strong><\/p>\n

Over the nearly 10 decades since former journalist George E. Akerson made his and the office’s debut as Herbert Hoover’s press secretary in 1929, the job has served many purposes: deliverer of information, amplifier of policy, jouster with journalists, protector of the presidential reputation and, sometimes, overlord of obfuscation.<\/p>\n

Under Trump and his second-term press secretary so far \u2014 Karoline Leavitt, who resigned in August \u2014 the job has been primarily one of acting as the immovable object against an irresistible, and in Trump’s eyes sometimes treasonous, force.<\/p>\n

Leavitt got to know this terrain well in her 17-month tenure. She took a smiling but combative stance against a press that was increasingly coming under Trump’s criticism for coverage \u2014 and was named in at least one lawsuit about White House media access. She was not shy about interdicting what she considered media bias. “What a stupid question,” she said to one reporter at a briefing last year.<\/p>\n

Trump, outside the White House on Tuesday shortly after Zacharia\u2019s briefing, praised her debut as \u201cexcellent.\u201d She was standing behind him at the time.<\/p>\n

Other early reviews were more critical. MS NOW quoted one unnamed White House official as saying of the performance: \u201cShe needs to get much better fast, otherwise she\u2019ll break Scaramucci\u2019s record.\u201d Anthony Scaramucci, an early White House communications director for first-term Trump, lasted 11 days in 2017. Said Scaramucci on X Tuesday afternoon: \u201cI hope she makes it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe Biden’s former press secretary, Jen Psaki, now the host of a show on MS NOW, put it more succinctly, posting on X: \u201cWell that briefing was basically an SNL skit\u2026.except it wasnt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Talking up Trump but taking few questions<\/strong><\/p>\n

While Zacharia’s performance \u2014 and of course, that’s what every briefing is \u2014 may have been bumpy to some, it was also mostly content-free except for news she broke about the White House asking U.S. Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle to quit, which she immediately did.<\/p>\n

Predictably, also like Leavitt before her, Zacharia spent a great part of her opening monologue praising Trump and giving an \u201cup ’til now\u201d-style update on his second term’s priorities and accomplishments so far. Talking points included a \u201cbooming economy,\u201d \u201chis historic boom in energy production\u201d and \u201ca great relationship with Venezuela.\u201d<\/p>\n

She was also fond of superlatives, a trait that likely will resonate with a president whose remarks are often equally if not more expansive: \u201cPresident Trump is working to secure the Western Hemisphere for centuries to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

When it came to questions, though, she was downright parsimonious. She allowed three questioners, then answered an additional one as she prepared to depart. The three called on during the briefing were Breitbart, Fox News and the Daily Mail, all of which have been friendly to Trump in varying degrees during periods of his two terms. And she said she would continue Leavitt’s policy of bringing \u201cnew media\u201d in \u2014 which has often meant outlets more sympathetic to Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe love new media and we want to be able to embrace it,\u201d she said. Currently, three major outlets \u2014 CNN, MS NOW and Politico \u2014 are fighting to regain White House access after Trump banished them last month, saying he didn’t like their coverage and calling it \u201cfake news.\u201d<\/p>\n

How will Zacharia fare in coming days and weeks and, if it lasts, months? That, like so much else, depends on one thing: Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

The late U.S. Sen. Howard Baker once famously said that, when being asked difficult things, handle it something like this: If you don’t like the question being asked, just answer a different question. On Tuesday, a half-century later, Katie Zacharia found a different way in \u2014 pick three nonconfrontational questioners, then defer to your boss and say: The End.<\/p>\n

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White House press secretary Katie Zacharia arrives on Air Force One, Tuesday, at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska. AP-Yonhap President Donald Trump’s new press secretary stepped to the podium, the eyes of a packed room of journalists \u2014 and many in their audiences \u2014 upon her. She smiled broadly at the sea of faces both probing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8754,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_templately_pack_id":"","_templately_imported_at":"","_templately_source":"","_templately_import_session_id":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-korea","category-trending-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t