By The Epoch Times | Created at 2026-10-16 17:56:23 | Updated at 2026-10-16 18:54:48
1 hour ago
President Donald Trump on Friday said he offered new White House press secretary Katie Zacharia the option to reconsider taking the job after she was “treated very badly” in the media.
“I said to Katie just two minutes ago: ‘You don’t have to do this,’” he told reporters at the White House on Friday.
She has been treated “very nastily” by media outlets, Trump said, citing two interviews she had with Fox News, including one with host Sean Hannity in recent days.
“Katie has been treated very badly by the media. Very, very badly. Very unfairly,” he said.
“I said to her, ‘If I were you, I'd reconsider,’” he added. ”Is this for you Katie? Honestly, you don’t need this … welcome to the world of Trump.”
The president then added that he will allow Zacharia, who he described as a “nice person,” to make a final decision.
“She was on Hannity last night. Sean was a little tough; I saw Fox and Friends. She’s been treated, I'd say, pretty nastily,” he continued.
“I don’t think Katie should be made to suffer like she is suffering at the hands of the press,” he also told reporters Friday. “So, I will talk to her as soon as I get back.”
The comments from Trump come amid media scrutiny of Zacharia for calling herself a lawyer after she said she earned a law degree from Pepperdine University but failed the bar exam.
Speaking to Hannity, Zacharia said she took the bar exam before moving to China but considered it inconsequential because she believed she didn’t need it to work in the country.
“I graduated Pepperdine, got married in the same week, and we had all intent to move out to China,” she said.
“I had already pre-registered for the bar exam and basically during the summer, I knew I would be living in China, and the results of the bar were inconsequential, and I sat for it because I didn’t want to have a withdrawal status.”
When announcing her appointment as press secretary last week, Trump described her as an attorney. In her Hannity interview, Zacharia said she could call herself a lawyer but not an attorney, and cited legal professionals on whether she could use that title.
“When I went to go engage in media and give legal analysis, I consulted attorneys and legal professionals as to whether or not they agreed that I could be labeled a lawyer, both because I had a valid Juris Doctor from a good law school, a reputable law school, Pepperdine Law School, and in conjunction with the fact that I did have actual substantive legal experience,” she said.
Zacharia was named to replace former White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who stepped down over the summer after she gave birth to her second child. Leavitt has since joined Fox News to work as a political analyst.
Zacharia’s first press briefing was held on Monday, during which she took three questions from the media. Later, she directed reporters to ask the president more questions before he boarded a plane for an Alaska campaign stop.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment Friday. Zacharia has not publicly responded to Trump’s statement.
