Trump Picks Katie Zacharia as New White House Press Secretary, Ending Weeks-Long Search After Leavitt’s Exit

President Donald Trump has selected conservative commentator and former Homeland Security spokeswoman Katie Zacharia as the next White House press secretary, ending a search that stretched for more than a month after Karoline Leavitt left the post at the end of August, according to multiple reports published Friday.

The New York Times first reported the selection on Friday, citing two people familiar with the matter, as relayed by Reuters. CNN independently confirmed the choice, reporting that multiple White House officials said the president had settled on Zacharia. The New York Post reported that Zacharia had been offered the position, while USA Today said a White House official confirmed Trump was offering her the role. Fox News Digital confirmed late Friday afternoon that Zacharia had been offered the job.

The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment, according to Reuters.

If she takes the job, Zacharia will succeed Leavitt, who stepped down at the end of August to spend more time with her family after the birth of her second child on May 1. Leavitt, 29, had served as the youngest White House press secretary in history and left after roughly two years in the administration. She has since joined Fox News as an on-air contributor, according to reports.

The appointment places one of the most visible and high-pressure jobs in American government in the hands of a lawyer-turned-commentator who has spent only a few months inside a federal agency but has years of experience defending the president on television.

How the Pick Came Together

According to CNN, Trump personally sounded out a circle of close allies and advisers in recent days as he weighed the choice, and — in a notable detail — sought the counsel of Leavitt herself before making his final decision and offering Zacharia the position.

That consultation is significant. Leavitt’s departure was presented as a family decision rather than a political rupture: Trump said at the time that she wanted more time with her young children and would remain one of his top outside advisers. By asking his former press secretary to weigh in on her replacement, the president signalled that the transition is being managed as a continuity move, not a clean break.

Several names had been floated as possible successors during the weeks of speculation, according to the U.S. Sun, including deputy press secretary Anna Kelly, CNN commentator Scott Jennings and White House communications specialist Margo Martin. None of those names was ultimately chosen.

The vacancy had dragged on long enough to generate open discussion about the administration’s difficulty finding a successor willing to take on a role that demands near-daily on-camera confrontations with the press corps, relentless television bookings and constant proximity to a president who frequently freelances his own messaging.

Who Is Katie Zacharia?

Zacharia, an attorney and conservative media commentator, currently serves as a senior communications adviser to Trump Media and Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social, according to CNN and Fox News. She has been a frequent guest on Fox News and Newsmax, where she has defended the president’s policies on air.

Her time inside government was brief but notable. According to her Wikipedia biography, Zacharia served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for Public Affairs beginning in February 2026. The New York Post reported that she spent about three months at the department during then-Secretary Kristi Noem’s tenure and departed after Markwayne Mullin took over as secretary in March. She told Just the News at the time that the long commute from California was straining her family life, the Post reported.

According to the Post, while at Homeland Security she was close to Noem and to Noem’s special adviser Corey Lewandowski, and she most recently worked as a legal adviser for Fix California, the conservative organisation founded by Trump’s special envoy Ric Grenell that focuses on advancing the conservative agenda in California.

USA Today reported that a public biography says Zacharia attended Pepperdine University’s Caruso School of Law and Seaver College, and that her career has spanned corporate law, political advocacy, higher education and nonprofits. CNN added that she first came to Washington as an intern for the Republican National Committee during the George W. Bush administration in 2006.

She is a mother of four, according to the Post.

USA Today noted a striking statistic about the appointment: Zacharia would be the seventh woman in a row to hold the press secretary job. The past six press secretaries have all been women, and the last man in the role was Sean Spicer, who lasted about six months at the beginning of Trump’s first term.

The Vacancy, and Why It Mattered

Leavitt’s exit at the end of August left the briefing room without a permanent face for more than a month — a gap that mattered more than it might seem. The White House press secretary is not merely a spokesperson; in the Trump era, the podium has been a daily stage for setting the narrative, attacking adversarial coverage and rallying supporters, with Leavitt’s combative briefings regularly generating viral clips.

The timing of the pick is also politically loaded. The announcement comes less than four weeks before the November 3 midterm elections, in which Republicans are fighting to retain control of Congress. Reuters reported in a domestic news summary this week that two-thirds of Republican candidates in competitive races have broken with Trump on policy or played down ties to him, revealing a widespread effort to distance themselves from the president as his unpopularity threatens the party’s hold on Congress.

A new press secretary walking into the job at this moment inherits a communications environment under visible strain: the administration is simultaneously fighting in court over its ban of CNN, MS NOW and Politico journalists from the White House — a federal judge promised a ruling by Tuesday on whether to extend a temporary block of the ban — while managing the fallout of major stories including the Pentagon’s announcement that it will livestream a military execution in December and the looming landfall of Hurricane Isaias on the Gulf Coast.

What Comes Next

None of the reporting Friday confirmed when Zacharia would formally begin or when the White House will make an official announcement. Press secretary transitions typically involve a handover period, briefing-book preparation and a first briefing that the press corps scrutinises for tone.

If Zacharia accepts and is formally named, her first weeks will almost certainly be defined by the midterm campaign: defending the president’s record on the economy, immigration and the ongoing conflict with Iran, all while the administration’s candidates try to hold both chambers of Congress.

The New York Post also flagged a potential subplot inside the West Wing: Zacharia’s closeness to Lewandowski and Grenell could shift internal dynamics, given what the Post described as their long-standing distaste for White House chief of staff Susie Wiles. Whether that friction materialises will be one of the early tests of how the new press secretary fits into the president’s inner circle.

For now, the immediate fact is the one first reported by the Times on Friday: after more than a month of speculation, the president has his pick for the podium.

Analysis: Why It Matters

Start with the most underappreciated fact in this story: Trump asked Karoline Leavitt for advice before choosing her replacement. In a White House where personnel decisions are often announced by social media post with no prior warning, that courtesy tells you two things. First, Leavitt’s departure genuinely was the family decision it was presented as — presidents do not solicit counsel from people they have pushed out. Second, the president understands that the press secretary’s credibility with the press corps, such as it is, partly transfers through an orderly handoff rather than a surprise coronation. The podium is a relationship business, and Trump just tried to inherit his predecessor’s relationships rather than torch them.

Now consider who he picked. Katie Zacharia’s résumé reads like a deliberate answer to the question of what went wrong with the search. She is not a career communications staffer from the campaign, nor a television celebrity with no governing experience. She is a lawyer who has done a short tour in a federal agency, spent years as a conservative advocate on television, and — crucially — already works inside the president’s own media orbit at Trump Media. That last detail may be the most important one. The press secretary’s job in this White House has always been two jobs: briefing the press corps in the morning and performing for the base on friendly television at night. Leavitt was exceptional at both. Zacharia, who has been a commentator on Newsmax and Fox News and currently advises the company behind Truth Social, arrives already fluent in both languages.

The shortness of her government service cuts both ways. On one hand, three months at Homeland Security is a thin credential for the most demanding communications job in the country, and the press corps will test her command of policy detail from day one — particularly on immigration enforcement, where she was the department’s public face during a volatile period. On the other hand, her departure from the department was reportedly about a California commute and family strain, not about performance, and she left on good terms with the Noem circle that remains central to the administration’s immigration politics. In a White House that prizes loyalty as the first qualification, a short, clean, loyal stint beats a long, complicated one.

Then there is the Lewandowski–Grenell–Wiles subplot that the Post surfaced. It is easy to dismiss West Wing factionalism as palace gossip, but the press secretary sits at the exact junction where factions collide: she must speak for the president while managing access to him, and chief-of-staff friction with the communications operation has derailed more than one administration’s messaging. If Zacharia is perceived as a Lewandowski-Grenell ally in a Wiles-run building, her first internal battle may come before her first briefing. Watch who stands beside her at the announcement, if one comes — that choreography is the tell.

Step back further and the timing is the real story. With the midterms 25 days away and Republican candidates visibly distancing themselves from the president, according to Reuters’ review of competitive races, the administration is entering the final stretch with its communications shop incomplete and its press corps relationship in open legal warfare — the CNN, MS NOW and Politico ban case lands before a judge on Tuesday. Naming a press secretary now is, in part, an attempt to stabilise the messaging apparatus before the election’s closing weeks. But it also raises the stakes of the pick: Zacharia will not get a quiet learning curve. Her first briefings will be consumed as campaign events, parsed for every line about the economy, Iran and immigration.

Finally, the gender footnote deserves more than a footnote. Seven women in a row as White House press secretary, across administrations and parties, is a genuine historical pattern — and it is worth asking what it says about a role that is simultaneously one of the most powerful communications jobs in the world and one defined by absorbing daily public punishment on behalf of the boss. The last man in the job, Sean Spicer, lasted six months. Whether the pattern reflects progress, a glass cliff or simply the talent pool is a question for a longer piece, but it is a question Zacharia’s appointment unavoidably revives.

What to watch next: the formal White House announcement and its timing; whether Zacharia’s first briefing keeps Leavitt’s combative style or attempts a reset; the Tuesday court ruling on the press ban, which will define the adversarial temperature of her early weeks; and the midterms themselves — the press secretary’s performance will be judged, fairly or not, against the election result.

Sources

• The New York Times (reported via Reuters) — Katie Zacharia picked as White House press secretary, NYT reports
• CNN — Trump selects Katie Zacharia as next White House press secretary
• New York Post — White House has found replacement for Karoline Leavitt as press secretary
• USA Today — Trump offers Katie Zacharia job as new White House press secretary