FIRST-DAY FIREWORKS

New Trump Mouthpiece’s Big Debut Rocked by Rift Bombshell

Katie Zacharia speaks to the Daily Beast as insiders reveal how Trump really chose his press secretary.

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Donald Trump’s new press secretary has found herself at the heart of claims of two bitter White House power struggles ahead of her first appearance behind the podium.

A Daily Mail report published Tuesday suggested Katie Zacharia’s appointment exposed a widening rift between Trump, 80, and his powerful chief of staff, Susie Wiles, 69, because she wasn’t Wiles’s first choice and Wiles had been blindsided by the announcement.

The Mail also reported that Zacharia faces an awkward reunion with White House communications official Lauren Bis, with whom she has ongoing beef from their time working together at the Department of Homeland Security.

Well-placed sources told the Beast that Wiles had not only been fully aware of Trump’s decision to hire Zacharia, but had also supported it. “At no point was Wiles in the dark or the deciding factor. It was the president’s pick,” they said.

And speaking to the Daily Beast ahead of her big debut in the West Wing’s Brady Press Briefing Room, Zacharia dismissed rumors of a rift and insisted her only duty was to the president.

“I don’t belong to any camp—I am in President Trump’s corner and will continue to amplify his message as I have done for many years prior to my appointment,” the MAGA commentator, 41, told the Beast.

However, as Bis now answers to Zacharia, White House sources said Bis may well be regretting her past choices.

As DHS’s assistant secretary, Bis was understood to have wanted to be the department’s public face and had sought to limit Zacharia’s opportunities to appear on TV. This was despite Zacharia having been hired by then Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and her chief adviser, Corey Lewandowski, specifically for that job.

Zacharia left DHS after approximately six weeks following the removal of Noem and Lewandowski. Despite their reported history, people close to the new press secretary insisted to the Mail that she is not planning to use her appointment to punish former colleagues.

But one White House source told the Beast that if Bis does have “a vendetta” against Zacharia, it’s worth her remembering: “Katie is her boss…"

Zacharia’s appointment has drawn scrutiny over her history of promoting conspiracy theories. The Beast has reported that she amplified claims associated with Pizzagate, the debunked theory alleging a child sex-trafficking operation involving senior Democrats, and engaged with QAnon-related speculation. She also attempted to draw a connection between the abortion medication mifepristone and the poison gas used in Nazi death camps.

She also promoted Trump’s baseless allegations that the 2020 presidential election had been stolen, and supported him seeking a constitutionally prohibited third term.

But it is exactly that kind of public support for Trump which appears to have sealed her new position, according to insiders.

Giving the Beast a detailed insider account of the whirlwind selection process, driven by Trump’s admiration for Zacharia’s right-wing TV hits, multiple senior White House officials have revealed how pleased Trump is with his choice to replace Karoline Leavitt.

One source said that, aboard Marine One on Monday, Trump had waxed lyrical about his “good pick,” telling them that Zacharia would give her first briefing the following day.

Trump also revealed he had received an unusually enthusiastic response from people who contacted him about the appointment. “He said, ‘I have gotten calls from so many people, all of them raving about her,’” one source said.

“He said that seemed odd, as people always say something negative about new hirings, but we have all had colleagues and reporters call, all saying positive things.”

The source added of the California-born married mom of four: “She came in yesterday and was so nice and is gonna fit right in. She’s going to do an incredible job.”

Among those considered alongside Zacharia was Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo, although her television contract was understood to present an obstacle. A source said other names, like Trump’s former lawyer and adviser Alina Habba, were “crazy horrible.”

So the president began asking his aides about Zacharia, whose confident television appearances defending his administration had impressed him.

After they responded positively to Zacharia’s TV appearances, with one saying she “seems smart, is good, and is beautiful on camera,” Trump personally telephoned Zacharia from the Oval Office on Oct. 6 to sound her out.

When he told her, “I’m looking for a press secretary, would you be interested?” Zacharia immediately expressed interest, and they ended the call after both saying “kind things about each other.”

The White House first needed to establish that recruiting Zacharia from her communications role at Trump Media and Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social, would not cause issues.

The company gave its blessing, and the next day Trump again raised Zacharia’s name with his advisers during discussions aboard a flight to San Antonio, Texas, with all agreeing she would be a fine hire.

Arrangements were then made for Zacharia to meet the president in person, and Wiles and White House Communications Director Stephen Cheung were informed of the plan, according to the senior official.

On Friday, Oct. 9, the first available time in their diaries, Zacharia arrived at the White House for her interview and was offered the job that same day.

The conflicting accounts around Wiles’ support for Zacharia’s appointment are particularly awkward because Wiles has previously been left out of a significant Trump personnel decision.

In August, a report by the Beast’s sister investigations Substack, PunchUp, revealed that she learned of Trump’s controversial nomination of Richard “Lance” Schroyer as ICE director through Truth Social while attending her daughter’s wedding. It came after a meeting Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin had secretly arranged with the president to champion his old buddy for the position.

But the Beast’s inside account of Zacharia’s hiring suggests her appointment followed a substantially different process.

In the weeks and months before her hiring, the new press secretary reportedly made a deliberate effort to ensure the president noticed her right-wing TV appearances.

Zacharia reportedly paid close attention to Trump’s daily schedule and social media activity, arranging her hits to coincide with when she hoped he would be watching, according to Politico.

The Beast can reveal Zacharia worked to ensure the clips reached his attention.

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Her approach paid off, with prominent names at Fox News, Newsmax, and One America News, and even reporters from more liberal-leaning outlets, supporting her candidacy.

A source close to Trump said the fact that Zacharia appeared to have friends across the media spectrum was “impressive,” and said a lot about her approach to communications and public relations.

The Mail report also suggested Zacharia had been regarded as a Lewandowski protégée, but sources close to the new press secretary have denied belonging to his faction. One told the Beast Zacharia did not know him before he approached her for the role and had barely spoken to him after leaving it.

A source close to Trump also disputed the suggestion that the president had been unaware of Zacharia’s connections to Lewandowski, which was “total bull-s--t,” they said.

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.

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Tom LatchemLead Global Correspondent

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