Commentator Katie Zacharia picked as new White House press secretary
Donald Trump has chosen conservative commentator Katie Zacharia to be the subsequent White House press secretary.
Zacharia, who presently works for Trump Media & Technology Group, will develop into the US president’s sixth chief spokesperson throughout his two administrations. She beforehand had a quick stint as a spokeswoman on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Trump known as Zacharia “loyal” and “a faithful fan and member of MAGA” in a social media put up on Friday, referring to his Make America Great Again motion, including that she had “an unblemished file of assist”.
Former White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who left the White House in August, has reportedly taken a job with Fox News.
“She was beforehand concerned in my Campaigns, aiding in key Swing States, the place we gained 7 out of seven,” Trump wrote on Truth Social of Zacharia.
“I’m assured that Katie will ship sturdy outcomes for our Country as the subsequent White House Press Secretary, as she has the respect of, and can work fantastically with, the Media, the American People, and my Administration.”
Zacharia thanked him in a put up on X, writing: “Serving President Trump and the American individuals at this vital 250-year mark is the distinction of a lifetime.”
She mentioned Trump had “proven America that we will be nice once more, and he works to effectuate that greatness each single day”.
She mentioned she appeared ahead “to working with the White House press corps, and with reporters throughout the nation, to get that file out”.
The 42-year-old political strategist is a frequent fixture on conservative Newsmax and Fox News, and has been energetic in Republican politics for many of her grownup life, having labored as an intern for the Republican National Committee and for the White House Office of Political Affairs in the course of the Bush administration in 2006.
Since June, she has been a senior communications adviser for Trump’s media firm and Truth Social platform, based on her LinkedIn profile. She labored in Homeland Security from February to March this yr.
While she was solely briefly in authorities at DHS – which she later mentioned she left due to the pressure of journey between California and Washington on her household – she has lengthy been a ferocious defender of President Trump and his administration’s insurance policies.
In a June interview with the BBC, for instance, she dismissed criticism of Trump’s controversial use of the White House to host a televised UFC struggle, saying the ideas of the UFC “are the type of ideas that based our Constitutional Republic”.
“It’s about not giving up the struggle till the bitter finish,” she mentioned. “I feel there isn’t any higher summation of the American ethos than UFC struggle.”
Earlier this yr, Zacharia wrote an op-ed within the New York Post about an incident by which she was requested to cease carrying a “Make America Great Again” hat to her native fitness center.
“I responded that I’d by no means take my Trump hat off to appease the left,” she wrote. “This is uncooked, unfiltered intolerance. Freedom of speech does not evaporate on the fitness center door.”
A lawyer educated at Pepperdine University in California, Zacharia additionally served as basic counsel for Fix California, a conservative non-profit began by Trump ally – and present Special Presidential Envoy for Special Missions – Ric Grenell.
In 2011, she spent almost two years clerking at a regulation agency in Beijing, China.
