ONE ZACHARIA

Trump’s Fallen Press Secretary Eclipses Scaramucci to Grim Record

Katie Zacharia has created a new unit of time for political flameouts.

Katie Zacharia is out as press secretary in less than half of a Scaramucci, marking a humiliating new record for the 41-year-old fake lawyer turned White House flameout.

President Donald Trump canned his new MAGA mouthpiece Friday after she fled her first press briefing following three softball questions and was then exposed for portraying herself as a lawyer despite failing the bar exam.

Her firing after just five days is unprecedented. She has eclipsed the previous record-holder for shortest modern White House stint, Anthony Scaramucci, who infamously lasted just 11 days as White House Communications Director in the president’s first term.

Scaramucci’s near-immediate firing in 2017 created a unit of time equivalent to about 10 or 11 days—either a “Scaramucci” or simply a “Mooch”—used anytime that political appointees are fired quickly. Now, it appears Zacharia has introduced an even shorter unit for future MAGA scalps.

Scaramucci, now a frequent Trump critic, has leaned into using “Scaramucci” as a political unit of time. On Friday, he weighed in on Zacharia’s week from hell, which the entire nation has been watching unfold.

“Records are made to be broken,” he wrote on X. “But I take no pleasure in other people’s pain.”

Earlier in the day, he was optimistic Zacharia would survive in the administration longer than he did. Replying to someone who estimated she was trending toward the “under” of a “Scaramucci” after she made a head-scratching appearance on Sean Hannity’s show, he wrote, “She will make it. I have the over.”

In the end, she made it less than halfway there.

Trump told reporters in a gaggle on Friday, “I said to her, ‘Honestly, if I were you, I’d reconsider. You think about it, but I would reconsider.’”

ON SECOND THOUGHTS

Trump Drops Bombshell on Press Secretary Katie Zacharia

Farrah Tomazin

Moments later, The New York Times reported that three sources confirmed that Zacharia, a 41-year-old mother of four, was out of a job at the White House. She officially started Monday morning and was gone by lunchtime Friday.

Zacharia appeared intent on staying in her role as recently as Friday morning. Then, she told reporters outside of the West Wing that she was once again not taking any questions, “but I want to let you know I’m looking forward to working with all of you so much.”

“Please get my number, reach out to me, call me, text me, email me,” she continued. “I would love to work with all of you, and I’m so excited to be working with President Trump and on behalf of the American people.”

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However, her car-crash appearance on Hannity, one of the president’s favorite shows, seems to have been the final straw. There, she failed to give meaningful answers in primetime on Thursday night about her repeatedly portraying herself as a lawyer despite failing the bar exam. She then delivered a word salad as the show humiliatingly played her off with music after Hannity asked how she would improve in future briefings.

“So what I, what I would say, is I would absolutely be very well prepared on the briefing, Sean,” she said. “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 is a substantive component to us having an ability to interact, and I will be very prepared, Sean, and I will step up to the duty that President Trump has asked me to as press secretary.”

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Josh FialloBreaking News Reporter

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