Ousted Press Secretary Zacharia Denies 'Throwing Trump Under the Bus,' Calling the Claim 'an Abject Lie and Fake News'
Washington — Katie Zacharia, who was ousted as White House press secretary after less than a week in the job, denied on Saturday that she had thrown President Donald Trump "under the bus," India's IANS news agency reported on October 18. "I never threw him under the bus nor would I ever, and any insinuation or assertion otherwise is an abject lie and fake news," Zacharia wrote on X.
She was replying to conservative commentator Wayne Root, who had written: "Once she responded by throwing Trump under bus, it was over for her." The charge stemmed from a "Fox & Friends" interview hours before her exit, when she was asked whether she should have told Trump that she had not passed the bar exam. "Those questions weren't asked," Zacharia said, according to The Hill. "I'm being hired as White House press secretary, not White House counsel."
Less than two hours after the denial, Zacharia posted a photograph and wrote: "Thank you, President Trump, for hosting my family and me in the Oval Office and for the generous gifts you gave my children on my son's birthday. It was an unforgettable honor." In a farewell post on the evening of her exit, she wrote: "President Trump is a kind, wonderful, gracious, thoughtful, enthusiastic, and hardworking man. I wish more Americans appreciated him."
NBC News quoted a senior administration official as saying she would move to a new role to be announced later. No successor or acting press secretary has been named, and there has been no formal White House statement. Fox News'John Roberts reported on October 16 that she was transitioning out, and that Trump considered her a good person whom he initially believed was right for the job.
Trump named Zacharia on October 9 to succeed Karoline Leavitt, who left at the end of August. "It is my Great Honor to have just appointed, as Press Secretary, Katie Zacharia," the White House quoted him as saying, and Leavitt posted the same day that "Katie has my full support." Her tenure was dogged by questions over her credentials. Newsmax's Alex Salvi reported on October 15 that Zacharia said she knew she was moving to China to be with her then-boyfriend before taking the bar exam, and that she had been offered a job in the international practice division of the Chinese law firm Zhong Lun. Journalist Charles Gasparino defended her against criticism over references to her as a doctor, saying she "is as much of a doctor as'Dr Jill Biden'since she graduated from law school, which gives her a juris doctorate."
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：白宫北立面资料照片。摄影：Ad Meskens／Wikimedia Commons，CC BY-SA 3.0。File photo: the north facade of the White House. Photo by Ad Meskens via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
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- 2026-10-17Ousted Press Secretary Zacharia Denies 'Throwing Trump Under the Bus,' Calling the Claim 'an Abject Lie and Fake News'This story
