The White House press secretary Katie Zacharia was “dismissed” from the role, a White House official said on Friday, after President Donald Trump stated that he had asked her to reconsider the position amid public scrutiny.
“I told her: ‘I think it’s better for you to be happy, and I’m not sure you’ll be able to be happy in this role. There’s nothing easy about it,’” Trump told reporters as he left the White House.
He added: “I told her with all sincerity: ‘If I were you, I would reconsider… think about it. But I would reconsider.’”
Fox News, citing a White House official, later reported that Zacharia was “leaving” the post as press secretary.
Zacharia took the post on Monday and held her first White House press briefing on Tuesday.
She had said she received a call about the press secretary post last Wednesday and that she received the offer to succeed Karoline Leavitt last Friday.
Trump subsequently announced her nomination. In his announcement, he described her as a lawyer.
Throughout the week, the question of whether Zacharia, a Pepperdine University School of Law graduate, had indeed passed the bar exam, which would have made her an actual attorney, began to draw criticism.
During an interview with Fox News on Thursday, Zacharia stated that she had not been approved in the bar exam.
