Skip to main content
SO WHICH ARE YOU?

Katie Zacharia Posts Fighting Words After Humiliating Exit

The shortest-serving press secretary in U.S. history says you can either be a warrior or a squishy piece of confectionery.

Incoming White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia holds her first press briefing at the White House in Washington, DC, US, October 13, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Kevin Lamarque/REUTERS

Katie Zacharia appears to have almost immediately forgotten about her stinging defeat as President Donald Trump’s latest mouthpiece.

“You can either be a fighter or a marshmallow,” the shortest-serving press secretary in U.S. history wrote on X on Tuesday night.

She shared a picture of herself posing with boxing legend Floyd Mayweather Jr. aboard Air Force One from his appearance at a MAGA rally in Arizona last week, when she was still part of the president’s entourage.

Katie Zacharia & Floyd Mayweather

Zacharia proved last week she couldn't go the distance.

X/Katie Zacharia

Mayweather, 49, retired in 2017 with an undefeated 50-0 record and is widely considered one of the greatest athletes of all time.

Zacharia, 42, gave a single briefing as press secretary that lasted 14 minutes and 12 seconds before Trump, 80, fired her after just five days on the job.

U.S. President Donald Trump looks on during an event in the Oval Office

Trump's own aides have torched him for sending Zacharia out totally unprepared.

Andrew Harnik/Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Behind the scenes, even the president’s own aides have reportedly blasted his decision to send her out in front of the press after she had only a weekend to prepare for the deluge of questions his administration faces ahead of a forecast Republican bloodbath at the November 3 midterms.

A source familiar with Zacharia’s brief stint at the top of the White House press corps told the Daily Beast that she “got along great and had fun” with Mayweather during the trip to Arizona, describing it as “a highlight from her stint.”

Play Video

Things began to unravel almost immediately after Zacharia’s press conference last Tuesday, during which she read uncertainly from prepared notes, fielded three questions from MAGA-friendly outlets, and left the room with most reporters’ hands still raised.

She also accidentally called her husband “my president,” corrected herself with a laugh, then struggled to answer a question about American intelligence-sharing with Ukraine.

The heat only turned up when reporters began picking apart her professional background. Trump had introduced Zacharia as “an attorney” in his Truth Social post announcing her appointment.

But Zacharia, a Pepperdine law graduate, never passed the California bar exam or secured a license to practice law in the United States.

“Honestly, if I were you, I’d reconsider,” Trump is understood to have told her just hours before her departure was announced on Friday.

The Daily Beast has contacted Zacharia for comment on this story.

Sign in or create an account

Login dialog

Loading comments…

TRENDING NOW