Katie Zacharia’s first White House press briefing was a disaster of her own making
Por Holly Baxter — – World RSS Feed
Analysis Katie Zacharia’s first White House press briefing was a disaster of her own making
The new press secretary made an embarrassing faux pas and then cut off the entire event after just a few minutes. It left some serious questions about whether she actually believes what she’s saying, writes Holly Baxter
Tuesday 13 October 2026 16:45 BST
- Bookmark
- Comments Go to comments
Bookmark popover
Removed from bookmarks
Close popover
Become an Independent member to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today.
Already a member?
Log in
K atie Zacharia was expected to start her job as White House press secretary on Tuesday morning with a bang. Instead, she started with a whimper.
“I am so honored to work for President Trump and the American people,” Zacharia began, as she came to the lectern. “I have wanted to work for him for a very long time.” She then started reading off the paper in front of her, and reading badly. Within a few short minutes, she would make an incredibly embarrassing faux pas and then bolt early from the briefing room. In terms of first days on the job, it was about to go almost as badly as it could possibly go.
And perhaps the issue was that she just couldn’t deliver her pre-prepared remarks with any confidence. The country is experiencing “energy and excitement never seen before in the history of midterms, thanks to President Trump,” Zacharia said, her eyes down, her tone stilted. The night before, there had been “another blockbuster rally” in Ohio, with “special guest” Jake Paul, she added. She then stated, two more times, how “everyday Americans are turning up in droves to attend these rallies” and how they’re “lining up and packing out arenas to support President Trump and Republicans.”
Sure, Katie, I believe you!
Still reading the words like she’d never seen them before in her life, she continued: “He is an energetic president.” Which really feels like a sentence that should never have to be said, except if you’re desperately trying to gaslight the nation.
open image in galleryIt continued, painfully and awkwardly: a list of business deals that “no other president” could’ve done, including a “historic facility” that will create a distinctly underwhelming and unhistoric 1,750 permanent jobs. A claim that Trump has delivered on business promises, “just like he delivers on every promise.”
An eye-opening sentence about how the president will “secure the western hemisphere for centuries to come,” without any real detail about what that even means; instead, it led straight into a segue about Greenland which led straight into a segue about fentanyl. Zacharia then opened for questions, and the briefing went even more downhill.
The first questions went to Breitbart, and it was softball stuff about how Trump loves “new media” and is doing a “midterm blitz.” Then we went to Fox News, who again asked a fairly softball question, but Zacharia struggled when asked to clarify the extent of her role: she slowly, while flubbing some of her words, said that she gets to “do what I was doing on the outside already,” which is “hoping to amplify” Trump’s “agenda.”
Has the US stopped sharing intelligence with Ukraine, came the only policy question? “I’ll have to get back to you on that,” she replied, with a tight smile.
The Daily Mail was then called upon, and Zacharia was able to announce that Kimberly Guilfoyle had been “asked to resign.” She was subsequently thrown the usual question that women in politics are thrown: How, oh how, will she — a mother — balance the new job with her family responsibilities? Any press secretary worth her salt should expect this tiresome, sexist question and any 2026 Republican should have a pre-prepared spiel that allows her to position herself as a conservative supermom who’s forever baking cookies and kissing scraped knees and a dedicated MAGA fan who diligently does God’s work in government at the same time.
open image in galleryBut after listing off her children’s ages, Zacharia could only manage that her husband was helping out and she wasn’t missing bedtime. Or at least, that’s what she tried to say. Instead, she said, “My president — sorry, my husband” and the whole thing rapidly fell apart.
It was a moment that Zacharia tried so hard to style out, but she just couldn’t recover. She acknowledged the mistake with a weak “Wow, that’s a good one,” but she was flustered. Hot off the heels of Trump accidentally reporting that Melania calls him “sir” at a rally, it didn’t exactly sell the idea of Republicans not being creepy.
Nevertheless, flubs happen all the time during White House press conferences and usually the people in charge simply continue. The idea, among Zacharia’s colleagues, is to throw out enough random sentences — and ideally to appear so riled up by the propaganda liberal press — that your own dumb mistake doesn’t become the headline of the day. But Zacharia hadn’t internalized this MAGA strategy. Instead, she unexpectedly and immediately wrapped up the briefing and tried to walk offstage, and even the walk away wasn’t confident: instead of doing the classic “thank-you” and march, she tried to address some of the shouted protests of the other reporters in the room before eventually bolting.
This was an eye-wateringly bad debut for Zacharia, who until recently worked in senior comms at Trump Media and Technology Group, and has spent years being a pretty reliable MAGA cheerleader in all the right (wing) places (Newsmax, Fox News and so on.) She was described by Trump himself as having an “unblemished record of support,” as well as being a “loyal and brilliant supporter,” and “a devoted fan,” which are of course three ways of saying the exact same thing. But there’s a big difference between delivering a soundbite or crafting a Truth Social comms strategy behind the screens and looking into the faces of the free press.
Presumably, Zacharia knew some hardball questions were coming. She must, after all, follow the news. Pete Hegseth is talking about live-streaming an execution by firing squad. The economy is still bad. Trump is now buying diesel from Russia — in violation of US law — and so indirectly funding Putin’s war in Ukraine in order to try and offset the economic damage Trump’s own war in Iran has done. Obviously, the optics on the Russia thing aren’t great. They are so not-great that they are causing open revolt among Republicans — just the thing you want three weeks out from the midterms. And when you’re the press secretary, optics is your responsibility.
Faced with all of that, and having just publicly confused the president with her husband, Zacharia clearly found she couldn’t continue.
According to a recent analysis of her deleted tweets, Zacharia has flirted with a number of conspiracy theories in the past, including anti-vaxxer misinformation, an obsession with Democrats being “cannibal pedophiles,” the idea that Putin is a righteous crusader against Ukraine who is fighting a secret group of global elites, and the idea that the Obamas may have killed Joan Rivers (no, I have no idea either.) In other words, a constellation of views that would make most people gasp in the pre-Trump era and is now par for the course among the increasingly radical MAGA core.
She may, indeed, be this radical. She may believe all of these things. But she still may not entirely believe that the unpopular rallies are popular; that Trump is going to win the midterms for Republicans; that public executions are a good idea; and that the war in Iran was worth it.
Indeed, Zacharia said herself, in the first few moments of the briefing, that her “favorite” issue is the border. Like a lot of other people who made compromises in order to become sometime Trump supporters — evangelicals, suburban women, Latinos, working class voters — she may be realizing, onstage, under the bright and unforgiving lights, that the price of those compromises is higher than she’s willing to pay.
More about
White HousemidtermsRepublicansKimberly GuilfoyleUkraineRussiaBreitbartFox NewsIran
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Most popular
Popular videos
Bulletin
Read next
Fonte: – World RSS Feed
