Who is Katie Zacharia, Donald Trump’s new White House press secretary?

New White House press secretary Katie Zacharia made her briefing room debut by taking remarkably few questions from journalists and lauding US President Donald Trump’s achievements.

“I get to do what I was doing on the outside already, which was hoping to amplify, multiply and expand upon President Trump’s incredible agenda for the American people,” she said, describing her vision for the job.

Zacharia, a 41-year-old devotee of Trump’s hard-right MAGA movement, is taking over the White House communications role just as Republicans face warnings of heavy defeat in upcoming midterm elections.

She’s also replacing the combative but skilled former press secretary Karoline Leavitt at a time when polls show the 80-year-old president becoming ever more unpopular.

Little known to the general public, Zacharia opened her first session at the famous briefing room podium by reading — at a notably slow pace — a lengthy list of what she said were achievements under the “energetic” leader.

These types of initial roundups, dubbed “toppers” in White House press lingo, are usually followed by a long question-and-answer session in the packed room, often extending to dozens of questions.

But Zacharia took questions from just three reporters, starting with right-wing website Breitbart, an outlet frequently accused of spreading conspiracy theories.

The next questions went to Fox News, one of the key pillars of Trump’s media support, and to the Daily Mail tabloid.

With that, after just 15 minutes, Zacharia declared the briefing finished and walked out, pursued by the sound of reporters shouting unanswered questions.

“I thought she was very good,” Trump, known to enjoy watching his staffers’ performances on television, later told reporters.

Zacharia’s background

Zacharia frequently appears on conservative outlets Fox News and Newsmax.

According to her LinkedIn profile, she previously worked as a legal adviser for Fix California, a conservative group that aims to address what it described as “the left’s stranglehold” on state politics.

The group was founded by Richard Grenell, who has served as Trump’s envoy to Venezuela and the interim president and executive director of the Kennedy Center in Washington.

Zacharia also served as an adviser to Trump Media and Technology, the group behind the president’s Truth Social platform.

She briefly served as a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security before departing in March, and interned at the White House during President George W Bush’s administration.

In announcing Zacharia’s appointment, Trump described her as an attorney. She had described herself as a lawyer in previous media appearances.

Zacharia graduated from Pepperdine University with a law degree, but questions emerged about her legal credentials after journalist Judd Legum reported that he found no evidence she had passed a bar exam or been admitted to practice law in any state.

When a reporter asked on Tuesday what state she passed the bar exam in, she appeared to reply, “when I moved to China”.

Lawyers must generally be admitted to the bar in a US jurisdiction to practise law in the United States, while China prohibits foreign nationals from practising Chinese law in its courts, the Washington Post reported.

“Katie moved to China with her husband after graduating because of his job at an American private equity firm while she worked on international transaction law,” the White House said in a statement.

The first briefing

She did not indicate whether she would aggressively pursue Trump’s unprecedented attempts to punish US media outlets he dislikes.

Most recently, the administration has plunged into a legal dispute with CNN, MS NOW and Politico over attempts to bar them from the White House.

Zacharia did make one piece of news, announcing that Trump had asked his ambassador to Greece to resign after a bribery scandal.

The bulk of her messaging, however, solely aimed at polishing the image of the Republican leader, who faces plummeting opinion polls over his war against Iran, economic hardship and a long list of domestic controversies.

“This is a president and administration that is looking out for you, the American people,” she said, declaring herself “thrilled to officially be part of this incredible journey”.

Asked if the demanding job would impact her personal life, Zacharia described how her family of four children was adapting.

But she slipped up, triggering ripples of laughter, when she referred to “my president, excuse me, my husband”.

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