White House press secretary Katie Zacharia leaves post after five days; told Hannity she did not pass the bar exam

Press secretary Katie Zacharia left her post on Friday, after what CNBC counted as five days: her first day was Monday, Columbus Day; Trump announced her on Truth Social on Oct. 9; she gave one briefing, on Tuesday. The night before, on Fox News, Sean Hannity asked whether she had gone to Pepperdine law school but not passed the bar exam; she acknowledged she had not and had not retaken it. Trump had called her “an attorney” in the announcement post. Earlier Friday Trump told reporters he had told her “you don’t have to do this if you don’t want”; afterward the New York Times, citing unnamed sources, reported he had “fired” her, while a senior White House official told Fox she was “transitioning out.” Communications director Steven Cheung said she “will continue to support the President as she transitions to a new role.”

Characterization is contested between “fired” (NYT, relayed by Yahoo News; CNN’s headline also says “firing”) and “transitioning” (White House); this entry takes no side beyond the departure. An anonymously sourced Politico account of how the Fox interview was arranged is disputed and was not bound to a fetchable source, so it is left out. Her only briefing is covered in 2026-10-13–white-house-asks-guilfoyle-to-resign-greece-ambassador. Coverage is press-pickup; no White House primary release was located.