BRIGHT SPARK

Gavin Newsom Ruthlessly Trolls Trump’s New Mouthpiece

Newsom has a new target in the Trump administration.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has ruthlessly trolled Donald Trump’s new White House Press Secretary after she was torn apart by Sean Hannity.

Katie Zacharia, 41, appeared on the Fox host’s show on Thursday night for what she may have thought would be an easy ride.

But Hannity did not go easy on Zacharia—and left her squirming as he quizzed her on why she only took three questions from conservative outlets during her train-wreck debut press briefing on Tuesday.

Trump nemesis Newsom capitalized on the press secretary’s stilted performance in a post on X.

“We’re sorry, America — we did not send our brightest to Washington,” his press office wrote of Zacharia, who was born and studied in California.

When contacted for comment, White House spokesman Davis Ingle told the Daily Beast: “Gavin Newscum is the worst governor in America, and he also may be the dumbest.”

Newsom has spent months ridiculing the 80-year-old president and his policies, and he apparently now has a new target.

The California governor reposted a clip of Zacharia buckling under pressure during an awkward seven-minute interview with the conservative host. The interview came just two days after her disastrous first press briefing, during which she accidentally referred to the president as her husband.

When asked by Hannity why she didn’t take more questions from the press, Zacharia fumbled over her answer.

“Yeah, so what I would say is, I would absolutely be very well prepared on the briefing, Sean, and I would love, and I do love questions, and I would love to build a relationship with all of those members of the press corps, so there’s a substantive, ah, component to us having an ability to interact,” Zacharia said, as Fox News began drowning her out with music to signal an ad break.

Zacharia went on: “I will be very prepared, Sean, and I will step up to the duty President Trump has asked me to as press secretary.”

Newsom wasn’t the only one to savage the White House press secretary for her interview performance.

“holy s--t, now a stammering Zacharia is struggling through a puff interview with Hannity. Even Hannity is clearly not impressed,” journalist Aaron Rupar wrote on X, saying in another post that the interview was “a disaster” for Zacharia.

One X user suggested the White House was “feeding her to the sharks” as she faces scrutiny over her legal credentials.

The president introduced Zacharia as “an attorney” in a Truth Social post, and Zacharia describes herself as a lawyer. But The Wall Street Journal reported that Zacharia failed the bar exam in 2011 after graduating from Pepperdine University’s law school. She subsequently joined Zhong Lun Law Firm in Beijing.

A person with direct knowledge of the matter told the publication that lawyers had advised Zacharia that she could provide legal analysis based on her degree and international transaction experience. Zacharia also told the Times that Pepperdine’s president had said she could call herself a lawyer, but not an attorney.

White House Communications Director Steven Cheung has described her as “uniquely qualified and whip smart,” as questions mount over how the mother of four has presented her legal background.

Outside the White House this week, Zacharia was asked which state she had passed the bar in. Trump’s new press secretary replied, “When I moved to China.”

She later told The New York Times that she had misheard the question over the noise of Marine One.

“I assumed the question was, ‘Where were you after law school?’” Zacharia told the paper.

Hannity pointed out that there were “questions about your legal background calling yourself a lawyer. You went to Pepperdine Law School, but you did not pass the bar exam, correct?”

“Correct,” Zacharia replied.

And when pressed on a CNN report detailing multiple social media posts Zacharia shared, from April 2025 to last month, that appeared to suggest that she identified herself as an attorney, she hit back: “I think they were retweets, and I corrected the record and said that there’s not endorsing the title. They were retweets of a title that had been given.”

LEGAL EAGLE

Trump’s Slurs Come Back to Bite New Mouthpiece

Isabel van Brugen

Hannity also asked Zacharia how she felt her first press briefing went. When she suggested she had “very little prep time,” the conservative host asked: “Am I hearing that you think the staff should have prepped you better?”

“Well, I believe that in that time, I could have just given a brief intro, and said, ‘I’m only here to introduce myself, and I want to engage with the press corps. I am a... someone who wants to build relationships with every single one of you. I, however, have been on the day, on the job for one day, and I now need to…’” the press secretary responded after laughing nervously.

Two nonprofit groups have called for investigations into how Zacharia has represented her legal background.

Democracy Defenders Fund alleged in a complaint that she “apparently held herself out as a lawyer and practiced law” while working as general counsel for nonprofit Fix California. Campaign for Accountability filed a separate complaint concerning her media appearances.

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Isabel van BrugenFreelance Writer

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