New White House press secretary's debut: Brief, limited questions and
some harsh reviews
[October 14, 2026]
By TED ANTHONY
President Donald Trump's new press secretary stepped to the podium, the
eyes of a packed room of journalists — and many in their audiences —
upon her. She smiled broadly at the sea of faces both probing and
friendly. With that, Katie Zacharia went live and became the official
voice of the world's most powerful person.
Fourteen minutes and just three questioners later, she was done. In the
aftermath, it was clear that the former Newsmax commentator accomplished
at least one thing: She put the “brief” back in briefing.
In her debut Tuesday, Zacharia looked downward and often read directly
from a script. She paused and grinned when she uttered the words
“Department of War.” She stumbled on a question about her background and
mixed up the words “husband” and “president.” The few questions she took
were nonconfrontational and from media outlets that have been
sympathetic to Trump. In short: She made no memorable impression — or at
least, to hear some tell it, not the one she likely wanted.
This would not be an easy job under any circumstances. Trump most
frequently serves as his own spokesman. And his antagonism toward the
media has created a new layer of tension. Zacharia is finding out on day
one that she, too, will be under constant watch. Some — including a few
of those who have stood in her shoes — didn’t think it went all that
well.
In fractured times, in a national media scrum unimaginable just a few
decades ago, what is the proper way to approach a job like this? How do
you speak effectively when your boss speaks for himself so often that he
commandeers the news cycle multiple times a day — and sometimes late
into the night — with remarks provocative, unexpected and sometimes
incendiary?
For one, you realize for whom you work: not your audience of millions
but your audience of one, and the absolute need for his approval.
“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,” Zacharia said. Nowhere did she mention the
task of disseminating accurate information to Americans.
The press secretary role has been many things
Over the nearly 10 decades since former journalist George E. Akerson
made his and the office's debut as Herbert Hoover's press secretary in
1929, the job has served many purposes: deliverer of information,
amplifier of policy, jouster with journalists, protector of the
presidential reputation and, sometimes, overlord of obfuscation.
Under Trump and his second-term press secretary so far — Karoline
Leavitt, who resigned in August — the job has been primarily one of
acting as the immovable object against an irresistible, and in Trump's
eyes sometimes treasonous, force.
Leavitt got to know this terrain well in her 17-month tenure. She took a
smiling but combative stance against a press that was increasingly
coming under Trump's criticism for coverage — and was named in at least
one lawsuit about White House media access. She was not shy about
interdicting what she considered media bias. "What a stupid question,"
she said to one reporter at a briefing last year.
Trump, outside the White House shortly after the briefing, praised
Zacharia's debut as “excellent.” She was standing behind him at the
time.
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White House press secretary Katie Zacharia speaks with reporters in
the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, Tuesday,
Oct. 13, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Other early reviews were more critical. MS NOW quoted one unnamed
White House official as saying of the performance: “She needs to get
much better fast, otherwise she’ll break Scaramucci’s record.”
Anthony Scaramucci, an early White House communications director for
first-term Trump, lasted 11 days in 2017. Said Scaramucci on X
Tuesday afternoon: “I hope she makes it.”
Joe Biden's former press secretary, Jen Psaki, now the host of a
show on MS NOW, put it more succinctly, posting on X: “Well that
briefing was basically an SNL skit….except it wasnt.”
Talking up Trump but taking few questions
While Zacharia's performance — and of course, that's what every
briefing is — may have been bumpy to some, it was also mostly
content-free except for news she broke about the White House asking
U.S. Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle to quit, which she
immediately did.
Predictably, also like Leavitt before her, Zacharia spent a great
part of her opening monologue praising Trump and giving an “up 'til
now”-style update on his second term's priorities and
accomplishments so far. Talking points included a “booming economy,”
“his historic boom in energy production” and “a great relationship
with Venezuela.”
She was also fond of superlatives, a trait that likely will resonate
with a president whose remarks are often equally if not more
expansive: “President Trump is working to secure the Western
Hemisphere for centuries to come.”
When it came to questions, though, she was downright parsimonious.
She allowed three questioners, then answered an additional one as
she prepared to depart. The three called on during the briefing were
Breitbart, Fox News and the Daily Mail, all of which have been
friendly to Trump in varying degrees during periods of his two
terms. And she said she would continue Leavitt's policy of bringing
“new media” in — which has often meant outlets more sympathetic to
Trump.
“We love new media and we want to be able to embrace it,” she said.
Currently, three major outlets — CNN, MS NOW and Politico — are
fighting to regain White House access after Trump banished them last
month, saying he didn't like their coverage and calling it “fake
news.”
How will Zacharia fare in coming days and weeks and, if it lasts,
months? That, like so much else, depends on one thing: Donald Trump.
The late U.S. Sen. Howard Baker once famously said that, when being
asked difficult things, handle it something like this: If you don't
like the question being asked, just answer a different question. On
Tuesday, a half-century later, Katie Zacharia found a different way
in — pick three nonconfrontational questioners, then defer to your
boss and say: The End.
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