President Donald Trump fired Katie Zacharia as White House press secretary on Friday, five days after she assumed the role. Zacharia’s lone briefing on Tuesday was widely panned and featured a notable gaffe in which she called her husband "the president" and took questions only from three predominantly conservative outlets. Reporters and others then scrutinized how Zacharia had presented her legal credentials after she admitted she did not pass the bar exam; she graduated from Pepperdine University School of Law and had repeatedly described herself as a lawyer and posted as an "attorney." Trump told reporters he had asked Zacharia to "reconsider" the job, saying "If I were you, I’d reconsider." Zacharia confirmed her departure on Friday evening and posted a tribute to Trump calling him "a kind, wonderful, gracious, thoughtful, enthusiastic, and hardworking man" and saying it was an honor to work for him. In interviews during the week she defended her readiness for the role, blamed limited prep time between accepting the job and briefing, and faced tough questioning on Fox News about the briefing and her résumé.
