Minutes before her exit was reported, Trump told reporters he had advised Zacharia that morning to reconsider staying in the post. "I said to Katie: you don't have to do this if you don't want to," Trump said, adding, "Honestly, if I were you, I'd reconsider." Trump denied firing her and said she had been "brutalized by the media," though she had only taken questions from conservative outlets. He added that she would remain in the administration in "a more pleasant form."
Zacharia's stint was marked by criticism of her 15 minute debut briefing on Tuesday, in which she read from a script and answered three questions, as well as scrutiny of her legal credentials. Although Trump described the 2011 Pepperdine law graduate as an attorney when appointing her on Oct. 9 to replace Karoline Leavitt, the Wall Street Journal reported she failed to pass the California bar exam. Her five day run lasted half as long as former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci's 10 day tenure.