LONG KNIVES

Trump Team’s Brutal Texts Trashing New Mouthpiece Leaked

The former Fox News talking head is already proving unpopular.

President Donald Trump’s new White House press secretary has been savaged by her own team, according to leaked messages.

Katie Zacharia is the latest Trump official to switch from Fox News and, on Tuesday, delivered her first press address. She looked uncomfortable behind the podium vacated by Karoline Leavitt in August, stumbled through her script, called the president her husband, and took questions from only three reporters before leaving after 14 minutes.

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Trump and the White House communications team say they were impressed by the debut, but some of her colleagues don’t feel the same, according to the Daily Mail.

One senior Trump administration official put it bluntly, saying: “She could barely read.”

Another insider said: “She looked as if she was handed a sheet of paper at the last minute and wasn’t prepared properly.”

Another suggested that the 41-year-old was purposely thrown to the wolves. “So who in the building wanted to see her fail?” they said.

A senior administration official suggested that her very hiring is symptomatic of a deeper issue. “Her hiring and the briefing shows this White House is collapsing now that they’re facing real pressure,” they said, referencing Trump’s war in Iran as they added, “They have no idea who to hire. We’re entering wartime, and they’re completely unequipped.”

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One GOP communications expert didn’t even bother with words, opting instead for emojis to denote a dumpster fire.

Another White House insider chose a more hopeful outlook. “Look, Katie has never done that before, and I think it’s insane for the press shop to just throw someone to the wolves like that,” they said. “But it always gets better.”

White House communications director Steven Cheung said Zacharia is a “wonderful addition to the team.”

It comes as the mother of four faces questions over legal credentials she appears to have made up. In short, she did not pass the bar exam, despite claiming to be a lawyer.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Zacharia failed the bar exam in 2011 after graduating from Pepperdine University’s law school.

She later joined Zhong Lun Law Firm in Beijing as an associate on its international practice team. A person with direct knowledge of the matter told the Journal that lawyers had advised Zacharia she could provide legal analysis based on her law degree and international transaction experience.

During an August 31 Fox News appearance discussing the prosecution of Charlie Kirk’s accused killer, Zacharia said, “As a lawyer, the procedural steps are absolutely critical to ensure that they get this right.” The Journal notes that falsely identifying oneself as a lawyer can lead to criminal charges in some states.

Questions about the 41-year-old’s credentials were fueled by reporting from the newsletter Popular Information and her own nonsensical response to reporters on Tuesday.

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Asked outside the White House which state she had passed the bar in, Zacharia replied, “When I moved to China.” A subsequent statement also sidestepped the question: “I practiced international transaction law, with all the appropriate credentials.”

Attempting to clear up the whole fiasco, she told The New York Times on Wednesday evening, “I assumed the question was, ‘Where were you after law school.’”

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Leigh KimminsReporter

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