Anthony Scaramucci can relax.
In a head-spinning move, Katie Zacharia is out as the White House press secretary after only five days on the job. The New York Times first reported the firing on Friday, Oct. 16. The whole episode is just another example of the funhouse-mirror aspect of Donald Trump's relationship with the media. (Scaramucci, the butt of jokes for his short-lived term, lasted 11 days, or more than twice as long as Zacharia.)
Zacharia never stood a chance.
Trump appointed her on Oct. 9. She held her first press briefing at the White House on Oct. 13. By Oct. 16, she was gone. That first briefing, by all accounts (including some White House officials), was a disaster. Zacharia read haltingly from a laundry list of praise for Trump,
then took questions from only three reporters before wrapping up.
When Sean Hannity grilled Zacharia, you knew it was over
She was also criticized for calling herself an attorney over the past two years, despite having failed the California bar exam. (She graduated with a law degree from Pepperdine University.) It was a bad sign for Zacharia when she appeared on Sean Hannity's show on Fox News on Oct. 15 and he began by calling her first briefing "widely panned" before grilling her about it, and her legal credentials. Hannity is known to be close with Trump; if he was asking her tough questions, it was not a good sign.
Things got worse Friday when she appeared on "Fox and Friends," typically the safest of spaces. The hosts also grilled her on not passing the bar, and not telling Trump about it.
The final straw occurred during a press gaggle with Trump on Friday. "I said to Katie, 'You don't have to do this if you don't want to,'" Trump told reporters, saying she had been treated "very rough" and "nastily."
"I said, 'Honestly, if I were you, I'd reconsider.'" He also said, "Katie, do you need this? I don't think you need this."
Apparently.
Then why hire her in the first place? Forget reconsidering. How about considering? It was clear as soon as she started speaking during the Tuesday briefing that Zacharia, who has long defended Trump and espoused far-right views, including wild conspiracy theories, was a bad fit for the job. But she did possess a qualification that matters in this administration ― the only one that matters, in fact: absolutely, undying loyalty to Trump, no matter what he says or does.
Zacharia did have the one qualification required for Trump: loyalty
It's the job of every press secretary in every administration to make their boss look good to some extent, but Zacharia took it farther. She said in her first (and only) briefing that she would "amplify" Trump, hoping to "only build on, only amplify and only multiply, to the extent possible, all of the wins."
Quiet part out loud, as they say.
Meghan McCain, the reliably conservative daughter of the late Sen. John McCain of Arizona and a former co-host of "The View," is not exactly known for her nuanced takes on things, media included. But she nailed it when she posted this on X: "One of the biggest problems with the administration right now is every issue facing Americans is serious and all they do is keep hiring deeply unserious people to represent them.
"It gives the impression the administration just simply doesn’t care what Americans think and that their problems aren’t worth hiring capable people with real experience to solve their problems."
She's on to something.
Now the search is on for a replacement, presumably. But as I've said before, does Trump really need a press secretary? He's his own best advocate, a self-promoter of the highest order. Neither Zacharia or even a pit bull like Karoline Leavitt, her predecessor, can praise Trump more than he praises himself. Why bother trying?
Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Media commentary with a side of snark? Sign up for The Watchlist newsletter with Bill Goodykoontz.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Katie Zacharia is out. She never stood a chance | Opinion
