President Donald Trump’s new press secretary stepped to the podium, the eyes of a packed room of journalists — and many in their audiences — 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.
Leavitt got to know this terrain well in her 17-month tenure. Anthony Scaramucci, an early White House communications director for first-term Trump, lasted 11 days in 2017. In her debut Tuesday, Zacharia looked downward and often read directly from a script. She paused and grinned when she uttered the words “Department of War. 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 — or at least, to hear some tell it, not the one she likely wanted. Nowhere did she mention the task of disseminating accurate information to Americans. She took a smiling but combative stance against a press that was increasingly coming under Trump’s criticism for coverage — and was named in at least one lawsuit about White House media access. She was not shy about interdicting what she considered media bias. Other early reviews were more critical. MS NOW quoted one unnamed White House official as saying of the performance: “She needs to get much better fast, otherwise she’ll break Scaramucci’s record. that’s what every briefing is — may have been bumpy to some, it was also mostly content-free except for news she broke about the White House asking U.S While Zacharia’s performance — and of course. Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle to quit, which she immediately did.
She stumbled on a question about her background and mixed up the words “husband” and “president. “I get to do what I was doing on the outside already, which was hoping to amplify, multiply and expand upon President Trump’s incredible agenda for the American people,” Zacharia said. “What a stupid question,” she said to one reporter at a briefing last year. Said Scaramucci on X Tuesday afternoon: “I hope she makes it. She was also fond of superlatives, a trait that likely will resonate with a president whose remarks are often equally if not more expansive: “President Trump is working to secure the Western Hemisphere for centuries to come.”
