After Karoline Leavitt left her role as White House Press Secretary at the end of August 2026 to spend more time with her family, President Donald Trump named Katie Zacharia as her replacement on Friday, October 9.
On Tuesday, October 13, Zacharia appeared in the briefing room for the first time on just her second day on the job, and things did not quite go in her favor.
Highlights
- Things did not go well for the new White House Press Secretary, Katie Zacharia, during her "awkward" introductory briefing on Tuesday.
- A bizarre mix-up during a conversation about her husband led to Zacharia being brutally trolled by netizens.
- White House officials and presidential advisers were also not happy with her performance.
She stayed at the podium for only 15 minutes and spent most of it reading haltingly from a prepared opening statement that heavily praised Trump.
While answering one of the three questions she took from the press, Zacharia committed a bizarre faux pas when she mentioned her husband, which some netizens labeled a “Freudian slip.”
“She is brutally bad at this,” one user commented.
New Press Secretary Katie Zacharia mixed up her husband and the president
After tackling two questions from Breitbart News and Fox News, Zacharia received a question from the Daily Mail about how she would handle the demands of her new role while raising four children, especially given the same reason that pushed her predecessor to resign.
Users said she hit the "lowest point" of the short-lived press conference while answering the question, confusing her boss for her life partner.
“The idea of not spending evenings with my kids is completely unacceptable, so my president—excuse me, my husband—is out here,” she said.
She then tried to recover by making light of the situation, joking, “That’s a good one,” which drew laughter from the reporters.
The internet, however, was not impressed.
“Kim Jong Un's press office has more dignity than this,” one disappointed viewer said. Another wrote, “At this point the administration is just mocking the American people.”
A third commented, “It's so bad it's almost surreal. Like we're living through a mash-up of Dr. Strangelove and The Office.”
Zacharia’s pivot to heap praise on Trump did not save her from online trolls
Zacharia pivoted to praising Trump to finish her answer, thanking the POTUS for putting his faith in her before ending the briefing and walking away.
“He has hired more women with families, and the fact that he knew I had four kids and he knew that this job would be demanding, and still placed his trust in me, shows that I know I'm capable of being able to step up to that,” she said.
“Katie has been with me, in spirit, from the very beginning, and will do a fantastic job!” Trump wrote in the Truth Social post announcing her appointment as the new Press Secretary.
Beyond the slip-up about her husband, Zacharia also got flak for her “awkward” delivery and “nervous” mannerisms, which most people trolled mercilessly, though a few pinned it on inexperience.
“This has gotta be an SNL skit,” a user joked. Another said, “Press pool is going to eat her alive.”
“First day on the job. Cut her some slack,” one said, defending Zacharia. A second added, “First time public speaking is always hard. She'll do better next time.”
Before this, Zacharia served briefly as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for Public Affairs in February 2026, then became communications advisor for the Trump Media and Technology Group in June. She also assisted with Trump’s presidential campaign in key swing states.
White House officials were highly disappointed with Zacharia’s performance, but Trump was happy
Netizens weren’t the only ones who thought Katie Zacharia’s debut press briefing was a “disaster.” Several White House officials and Trump advisers also felt the same way.
“Why did they put her out there so quickly?” a White House official told CNN. “Literally zero reason to put her out on her second day, unprepared.”
“She should have been doing m*rd*r boards for two weeks before going up there,” a Trump adviser told the outlet, adding that her announcement about the resignation of Kimberly Guilfoyle, the US ambassador to Greece, was “the best thing she did” as it took the “focus off of her performance.”
Another adviser said that while the briefing “wasn’t great,” Trump would likely give her the “benefit of the doubt,” since it was her first.
Trump, meanwhile, told reporters shortly after that he thought “she was very good.”
“No question we’re all missing Karoline,” one adviser said.
Although Leavitt stepped down as press secretary after the recent birth of her second child, she remains part of Trump’s inner circle and has also landed a new job with Fox News as an on-air contributor.
"Me presenting my first Powerpoint at school," one user joked
