Some White House officials are questioning how long Katie Zachariah will remain press secretary after her first briefing on Tuesday, noting that her performance was unlikely to have satisfied U.S. President Donald Trump, UNN reports, citing CNN.
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Several advisers and officials gave negative assessments of the new White House spokesperson's performance in comments to CNN. One of them called her "terrible." Others described the performance as unusual, awkward, unnatural, and at times uncomfortable. Zachariah spent only about 15 minutes at the lectern, devoting most of that time to an opening speech in which she praised Trump's achievements. She called on only three reporters for questions before ending the briefing.
Some White House officials and Trump advisers expressed surprise at why the administration rushed Zachariah to the lectern.
"She should have spent two weeks undergoing intensive training on how to prepare answers to difficult questions before going out there," one of Trump's advisers told CNN before criticizing Zachariah's performance. "The best thing she did was announce the news about (Kimberly Guilfoyle's appointment as ambassador to Greece); at least that takes attention away from her performance."
"Why did they rush her out there?" a White House official asked in surprise. "There was literally no reason to put her out there on her second day on the job, especially unprepared."
After the briefing, Trump spoke favorably about Zachariah, telling reporters shortly afterward: "I thought she did very well."
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The publication notes that the briefing was noticeably shorter than those that have become the norm recently. Briefings by former White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt lasted about 45 minutes on average. During her first briefing, she called on two representatives of the "new media," followed by an Associated Press correspondent. She also took questions from reporters standing in the aisles. Zachariah, meanwhile, called on reporters from the conservative outlet Breitbart (which occupied the "new media" seat), as well as Fox News and the Daily Mail. It appears that their names had been written down in advance.
Another adviser told CNN that although Zachariah's performance "was not brilliant," it was only her first press briefing. He expressed hope that Trump would be understanding toward her and give her a chance to prove herself.
According to CNN sources, Trump had been somewhat impressed by Zachariah's appearances on Fox News before ultimately hiring her. However, one adviser noted that participating in television discussions and speaking before the entire world from the official lectern are completely different things.
"Without a doubt, we all miss Karoline," one of the advisers said.
Zachariah said she was ending the briefing early because Trump would likely be answering reporters' questions shortly on the South Lawn of the White House before departing for Alaska.
"I am ending the briefing because President Trump is heading to the Marine One helicopter for our historic trip to Alaska, and we will be able to ask him all our questions there," she said.
It is currently unknown how frequently Zachariah will hold briefings for reporters. An analysis of the White House video archive conducted by CNN's "Reliable Sources" program showed that Leavitt (who left the position in August) held official briefings about once a week on average before the birth of her second child. During the four months before going on maternity leave at the end of April, she held 14 briefings.
Throughout the rest of 2025, she held another 49 briefings, including several in an unconventional format.