Katie Zacharia, who was ousted as White House press secretary after just five days on the job, is pushing back hard against reports that she is angling to get her old post back. Sources told the New York Post that Trump advisers believe Zacharia is seeking a second chance at the role, but Zacharia herself says that is simply not true.
“I am not auditioning for the role,” Zacharia told TMZ, directly disputing the premise of the New York Post's exclusive report, which cited sources saying she had been working to charm President Trump and new chief of staff Stephen Miller. She added that she maintains, in her words, “a loyal and great relationship with the President.” A person close to Zacharia echoed that she has no interest in becoming press secretary again, saying she is instead focused on defending free speech and supporting the president's priorities through other mediums.
The Post's sources, however, paint a very different picture. According to the report, Zacharia was spotted at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida on November 7, where she was observed trying to get the president's attention on the patio. Sources familiar with the jockeying said she had also helped anchor Right Side Broadcasting Network's election-night coverage, reportedly hoping Trump would see her performance and conclude she was right for the job after all.
A Five-Day Tenure That Ended Abruptly
Zacharia's time as press secretary was brief by any measure. She held the role for five days in October before she was fired, according to the Post, and gave only a single White House press briefing, on October 13, which lasted about 14 minutes, as reported by the International Business Times. An Associated Press headline simply noted the press secretary was “leaving the job after just 5 days.” The outlet's report on her comparatively tiny tenure drew a comparison from Time, cited by the same International Business Times report, to Anthony Scaramucci's 11-day run as White House communications director back in 2017.
A New York Times account, with lower confidence attached by the dossier reviewed for this story, said her abrupt departure followed questions about how she had presented her legal career and handled that first briefing. The position has sat vacant ever since, according to NBC News, which reported last month that the press secretary role had been empty since Zacharia left after five days.
Zacharia also reportedly struggled in Fox News interviews with Sean Hannity and Fox & Friends following her exit, and suggested to Hannity that her briefing performance suffered because subordinates had not briefed her sufficiently — a claim that, per the Post's sourcing, infuriated White House aides. A person who spoke with Zacharia afterward said she described her RSBN appearance as a joke rather than a bid to reclaim the job.
Trump Advisers Reportedly Skeptical of a Return
People close to Trump were blunt in their assessment of any comeback scenario, telling the Post that Trump would never reinstate Zacharia and considers her a joke, with one person close to Trump saying the president had called her “a train wreck.” A White House official, however, offered a different read, saying Zacharia had never stopped pursuing the job and believed she had done well in her lone briefing. The Post also reported that administration officials reacted to the prospect of her return with a mix of humor and horror, including one administration official who quipped that giving birth without drugs was less painful than imagining Zacharia's return.
In an October 27 interview with Newsmax, Zacharia offered a more conditional stance, telling host Rob Finnerty, “If the president asked, as he did before, I would take it, Rob.” That comment does not, on its own, confirm she was actively seeking the role back, and it predates her more recent denial to TMZ.
Other Names Circling the Vacant Post
Zacharia is reportedly not the only person eyeing the opening. The Post noted that Caroline Sunshine, a former Disney Channel actress who served in Trump's first term, keeps calling and trying to get meetings with Trump, according to a source cited in the report. Meanwhile, prediction markets have been moving fast around a different name entirely: Newsweek reported that Kalshi gave Danielle Alvarez a 19 percent chance of becoming the next press secretary as of Monday morning, up sharply from 3.5 percent on Saturday afternoon, with principal deputy press secretary Anna Kelly at 14 percent and commentator Scott Jennings at 7 percent.
Trump himself added to the noise around the vacancy this week. NBC News reported that the president said he was “only kidding” after floating UFC CEO Dana White for the job, though he added that “Dana loves the idea.” The churn comes amid a broader shakeup atop the West Wing — Trump replaced Susie Wiles with Stephen Miller as chief of staff on November 6, according to the Post, which also reported he is expected to make further staff changes. That reshuffling follows a landslide election defeat for Republicans on November 3.
For now, the press secretary's podium remains empty, and the competing accounts of Zacharia's intentions remain unresolved. One tipster quoted by the Post did not hold back on the optics of it all, calling the situation “absurd” and “truly embarrassing” — though whether that verdict applies to Zacharia's camp or the White House's internal drama depends on who you ask.
