Leavitt says Zacharia’s five-day White House press stint ‘was not for her’

Former White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt says Katie Zacharia’s five-day tenure showed the job was not for her, as she helps Trump choose a tougher replacement.

Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Digital in a Thursday interview that the White House press secretary post is one of the hardest jobs in politics, and that her successor’s brief run made the mismatch plain.

Katie Zacharia took over on October 12 after Leavitt stepped back. She held her first briefing on October 13, lasted 14 minutes, read prepared remarks, took questions from only three journalists, and was out within five days, the shortest tenure on record for the role.

Leavitt did not sugarcoat it.

Speaking from her own time in the briefing room, she said the job demands heavy preparation and that performance is hard to predict until someone is under the lights.

"Look, White House press secretary is a tough job. I know that because I did it."

She added that many people call it one of the hardest jobs in politics, and that you sometimes cannot know how a person will handle it until they step out there.

Just The News reported that Leavitt has offered President Donald Trump her help finding “someone who can serve him and the country well,” drawing on the stretch she served from the start of his second term until she resigned on Aug. 27 to focus on her young family.

Leavitt began the job in January 2025 and left after the birth of her second child. She has since been linked to on-air work, including plans covered when Leavitt joined Fox News as a contributor.

Zacharia’s first briefing lasted 14 minutes

Zacharia arrived with a résumé as a former Homeland Security spokesperson and Newsmax contributor. Trump had hailed her as a “loyal and brilliant supporter” when he put her in the job after Leavitt’s exit from the press secretary post.

The opening briefing told a different story. She stuck close to prepared text, limited the exchange, and at one point accidentally referred to her husband as “my president.” The session wrapped in 14 minutes with questions from just three reporters.

By the five-day mark, she was gone. The White House was left hunting for a permanent voice at the podium with midterm elections less than two weeks away in the reporting’s relative timeline.

Leavitt framed the exit without drama and without personal attack on character. She aligned with the president’s public posture of wishing Zacharia well while stating the obvious fit problem.

"As the president said, we wish Katie the best. The job obviously was not for her."

That line, delivered in the same Thursday interview, put the emphasis on the demands of the chair rather than on score-settling.

Leavitt tells Trump the podium needs a fighter

Leavitt said she still talks with Trump about what the job actually requires. In her telling, nobody understands the press better than he does, and he already knows the profile he needs next.

"I do obviously talk to him about what the job entails, and he knows it very well. Nobody understands the press better than Donald Trump. He knows that he needs someone who is tough, who is smart, who understands his policies, who is loyal and can go out there and put up a fight."

Those traits, toughness, policy fluency, loyalty, and willingness to scrap, are the standard she is urging as she helps with the search.

The Independent reported the same counsel and the scramble that followed Zacharia’s removal, including names circulating for the permanent slot.

White House Communications Director Steven Cheung, speaking earlier in the week, kept the institutional focus on the campaign calendar rather than the personnel churn.

"President Trump and his team are focused on the midterm elections."

Cheung added that the president remains the party’s strongest messenger and will keep traveling the country to sell a “commonsense, America First agenda” directly to voters.

Kelly leads the names in the replacement mix

Names already in the mix include current White House principal deputy press secretary Anna Kelly, described as the frontrunner among prediction-market bettors on Kalshi. Former model and 2016 Trump campaign aide Elizabeth Pipko sat at a 15 percent chance in that same market snapshot. CNN commentator Scott Jennings, long floated as a favorite in earlier rounds, stood at 13 percent and was said to have privately pushed for the job.

Kelly’s inside seat as principal deputy gives her the most direct continuity if Trump wants a steady hand who already knows the building. Jennings brings cable-news combat experience. Pipko brings campaign loyalty from the 2016 race. None of those odds, or the private campaigning around them, change the core requirement Leavitt keeps repeating: the next person has to be ready to fight for the president’s record in a hostile briefing room.

That standard sits against a wider media fight the administration has already been waging, from disputes over access to the decision to reverse a media ban after a federal judge intervened.

Trump’s team has also moved to shape its own distribution channels, including the launch of a streaming network as major outlets pulled back from routine White House coverage, a backdrop that makes the podium hire more than a personnel footnote.

Leavitt’s own path supplies the contrast. She held the job from the opening of the second term, managed the daily grind, then left in late August to raise her children. She is not auditioning for a return. She is translating the hard parts of the role for the man who has to fill it, and for a party staring at a compressed midterm clock.

The five-day experiment under Zacharia, after Trump appointed her to succeed Leavitt, left little doubt about the cost of a bad fit. A 14-minute briefing, a flubbed line, three reporters, and a rapid exit are the record. Leavitt’s public message matches that record: wish her well, admit the mismatch, and hire someone who can take a punch and throw one back.

Voters do not need a press secretary who reads a script and bolts. They need one who can defend the agenda when the room turns hostile, and the White House now has a fresh reminder of what happens when that standard is missed.