Trump's new press secretary, Katie Zacharia, holds first White House briefing

Katie Zacharia stepped behind the podium in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room for the first time on Tuesday morning, opening her tenure as the second White House press secretary of President Donald Trump's current term and ending a stretch of nearly seven weeks in which no one held the job full time.

Zacharia, a 41-year-old attorney and conservative commentator, was named to the post by Trump in a Truth Social post on Friday, Oct. 9. She succeeds Karoline Leavitt, who left the role on Aug. 27 after 19 months, becoming the first press secretary of Trump's second administration. Trump said Zacharia would begin her term Monday, Columbus Day, and hold an introductory news conference Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. from the White House briefing room podium.

The numbers behind the handoff

The timeline underscores how unusual the vacancy was. Leavitt's 19 months in the job made her one of the longer-serving press secretaries in recent memory, and her departure left the briefing room without a permanent occupant for 46 days. During that stretch, officials including Vice President JD Vance and Attorney General Todd Blanche filled in for a limited number of sessions, according to Fox News's account of the briefing room's "new era".

Zacharia's own government résumé is similarly brief: she spent about six weeks earlier this year as a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman and deputy assistant secretary for public affairs, a position she left on March 31, before moving to a senior communications role at Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social.

• 41 — Zacharia's age when she took the podium
• 19 months — Leavitt's tenure, from Jan. 20, 2025, to Aug. 27, 2026
• 46 days — how long the press secretary's office sat without a permanent occupant
• Six weeks — Zacharia's earlier stint as a DHS spokeswoman, Feb. 17 to March 31, 2026

A career built in conservative media and the last campaign

Before her brief DHS posting, Zacharia was a familiar face on cable news as a commentator for Fox News, Fox Business and Newsmax, and she served as general counsel for the conservative advocacy group Fix California. NBC News reported that two White House officials confirmed the selection after the New York Times first broke the story. She holds a bachelor's degree in political science and a law degree from Pepperdine University's Caruso School of Law, lives in California and has four children.

Trump, announcing the pick, said Zacharia "has the respect of" the press corps and would "work fantastically with" reporters, adding that she had been "with me, in spirit, from the very beginning" of his political career and had helped his campaigns "assisting in key Swing States." Those campaign ties, plus her more recent work defending the administration on television and on X, were central to how the White House framed her as a natural successor to Leavitt.

Who the change affects

The most immediate audience is the White House press corps, which spent the past six-plus weeks without a single, consistent on-camera point of contact for daily questions on policy, personnel and the president's schedule. Reporters covering the West Wing will now deal with a press secretary who has no prior experience holding that specific job, though she has briefed reporters informally in past communications roles. The change also lands as the broader senior ranks of the administration have seen a string of staff turnover this fall, and as the White House works to sharpen its messaging roughly three weeks before early voting begins in several states ahead of November's midterm elections.

Zacharia used her weekend before taking the job to get in front of cameras, appearing on "Fox & Friends Weekend" to promote a deal in which Russia agreed to supply more than 1.8 million tons of diesel fuel to U.S. and global markets, which the administration argues will help ease fuel and grocery prices. She told viewers the president is "delivering" on cost-of-living complaints, a preview of the message discipline she is expected to bring to the podium.

What people are saying

Zacharia addressed her own appointment directly in a post on X on Friday, thanking Trump for what she called the "distinguished privilege" of serving and acknowledging the scrutiny that comes with following a predecessor who built a national profile at the podium.

"It's a high standard, and one worth meeting," Zacharia wrote of succeeding Leavitt.

Sean Spicer, who held the job during the first week of Trump's first term, told Fox News Digital he expects Zacharia to be an effective advocate for the administration's agenda who has earned the president's trust, and predicted she would develop a workable rapport with the press corps despite her lack of direct briefing-room experience. Leavitt, for her part, has moved on to a new role as an on-air contributor for Fox News following her exit, a step several outlets, including the Daily Beast's report on the handoff, noted as part of the broader reshuffling inside Trump's media operation.

What happens next

Zacharia's first real test will be sustaining daily or near-daily briefings, something the building has not managed consistently since Leavitt's exit. Coverage of Friday's announcement noted that it remained unclear in the days after Trump's post whether Zacharia had formally accepted before Tuesday's debut confirmed she had. She now inherits a White House communications shop that Trump himself has complained is failing to get credit for his record: at a rally in Durant, Oklahoma, earlier this month he said "we're not doing a good job of public relations," and at a Hispanic Heritage Month event he conceded he had done a "very bad job" explaining the state of the economy to voters.

That complaint sets the bar for Zacharia's early weeks. With other personnel moves continuing across the administration this fall, and with midterm campaigning intensifying, reporters who cover the White House say the real measure of her tenure will not be Tuesday's introductory session but whether she becomes a fixture at the podium in the weeks and months that follow — something her two predecessors in the role, Leavitt and the string of rotating officials who filled in before her, managed with mixed consistency.