Donald Trump defended his newly minted White House press secretary after her widely panned debut at the briefing room podium, praising her as she beamed behind him outside the White House.
President Trump on White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia: “I thought she was very good.”
Q: “You said she’s an attorney. Where did she pass the bar exam? Which state?”
Zacharia: “When I moved to China.”
Q: “Where did you pass the bar exam?” https://t.co/5xiwyEsVSs
— CSPAN (@cspan) October 13, 2026
From Mediaite:
“I thought she did very good,” he said. “I thought she was very good.”
Zacharia, 41, stood behind Trump wearing dark sunglasses and clutching her purse.
Zacharia was announced last week as successor to former White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who shockingly stepped down in August following the birth of her second child.
The California mother of four was clearly nervous as she took to the podium Tuesday morning, mostly reading her remarks and taking a few softball questions before ending the briefing after a measly 14 minutes.
Zacharia was crushed for her first turn at the White House podium, with one unnamed White House official telling MS NOW needed to quickly improve or would be gone faster than Anthony Scaramucci, who lasted a brief 11 days as White House Communications Director in 2017.
Watch her first moments behind the podium below. Considering she was reading from prepared remarks, her awkward speech pattern was rather odd.
😬 Katie Zacharia’s first press briefing was brutally bad 😬
Trump managed to find a press secretary who can barely read, but she does have the number one qualification — looking like Ivanka
Here’s a supercut from Zacharia’s first briefing, which made Karoline Leavitt seem like Ronald Reagan
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 13, 2026
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, a frequent Trump target, declared Zacharia’s short briefing “bizarre,” and noted that there were only three questions in the briefing.
CNN on Zacharia: “Some White House officials are already wondering how long she’ll keep the job. They tell Kaitlan Collins her performance was unlikely to satisfy President Trump. One White House official called the appearance ‘unusual.’ Another called it ‘brutal.'” https://t.co/v5FEIPWwxq
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 13, 2026
Alexander on Zacharia: “I was speaking to a former high-level Trump aide in the moments before we came out here. This person said, ‘I think she is going to be a train wreck.'” https://t.co/fAjN84EPy8
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 13, 2026
Ruhle: “Wow. I want to just read this to you. A quote from a White House official reaction to Zacharia’s first press briefing. ‘Getting behind the podium is tough, but she got off on the wrong foot. She needs to get much better fast, otherwise she’ll break Scaramucci’s record.'” https://t.co/ZbpEtWTQdf
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 13, 2026
Earlier in the day, Popular Information dropped a report questioning Zacharia’s credentials as a “lawyer,” which she’s claimed to be many times in the past on TV.
Yet, there is no evidence that Zacharia ever passed a bar exam or has been admitted to practice law in any state.
She is not listed as a member of the State Bar of California, the state where she lives. According to her LinkedIn account, she worked as “General Counsel” for a nonprofit in the state called Fix California. Zacharia is also not listed as a member of the State Bar of Texas or as a member of the D.C. Bar, two other places where she worked.
Popular Information searched for evidence in all 50 states, plus D.C., that Zacharia was admitted to practice law anywhere — and found none.
“When President Trump plucked Katie Zacharia from obscurity and appointed her as his new press secretary, he called her ‘an attorney.’ This is also how Zacharia, repeatedly and publicly, describes herself. Yet, there is no evidence that Zacharia ever passed a bar exam or has been admitted to practice law in any state. Popular Information searched for evidence in all 50 states, plus DC, that Zacharia was admitted to practice law anywhere — and found none.” https://t.co/zABmu7cZCU
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 13, 2026
When the question came up outside the White House today, Zacharia said she passed the bar when she “moved to China.” According to what I’ve been able to determine, non-citizens aren’t allowed to sit for the bar exam in China. Huh…
One cannot take an American state bar exam in China. Bar exams are administered at designated testing locations in each state of the union.
Are Katie Zacharia and trump lying when they say she is an attorney?
If not, then she needs to disclose in what state she passed the bar.
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) October 13, 2026
Addressing questions about her legal qualifications after saying she passed the bar exam in China, Katie Zacharia tells the Daily Mail that she has ‘all the appropriate credentials.’
‘I practiced international transaction law, with all the appropriate credentials.’ https://t.co/95yRf7xmYe
— Jon Michael Raasch (@JMRaasch) October 13, 2026
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