Tuesday, October 13, 2026

'My President, My Husband'

White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia beat an abrupt retreat from the James Brady Briefing Room after just 14 minutes Tuesday morning, capping off an awkward appearance in which she mixed up the man who hired her with the man to whom she is married and spent the majority of her debut on prepared remarks filled with praise for the president.

Zacharia, whom President Donald Trump named Friday as successor to Karoline Leavitt appeared in the briefing room for the first time on just her second day on the job. She opened by telling reporters she was “so honored” to be working for Trump and noted that she’d “wanted to work for him for a very long time.”

She spent the next six minutes reading haltingly from prepared remarks replete with praise for Trump and boasts about purported successes dating back months, including what she called a “historic one-day war” against Venezuela as the actual war Trump started with Iran approaches its ninth month.

When it came time to take questions, Zacharia worked from a list of outlets laid out on a note-card that was captured by a photographer’s camera placed above the press secretary’s lectern.

She first called on a reporter from the right-wing Breitbart News, who was in a seat normally used by White House staff that her predecessor repurposed for “new media” outlets that are generally friendly to the administration.

She then turned to Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy, who asked her if the U.S. has halted sharing intelligence with Ukraine amid Trump’s blow-up at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Zacharia was unable to answer and told him she’d “have to get back to [him] on that.”

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By Andrew Feinberg

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