White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia speaks with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, in Washington.
Julia Démarée Nikhinson/AP
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Julia Démarée Nikhinson/AP
The White House press secretary is one of the most important public-facing positions in any administration. Yet there is no job description, no required qualifications, no congressional oversight. And as the press secretary recently discovered, you can be fired just as quickly as you were hired.
For nearly 100 years, since the advent of a modern press corps, a person has been designated to speak for the sitting U.S. president. But the press secretary also responds to the public, says former Pentagon press secretary John Kirby. He served under the Obama and Biden administrations.
“You’re expected to be the voice of the president and sometimes the face of the president on day-to-day issues, which means you have to have access to the president,” Kirby told NPR’s Ayesha Roscoe on Sunday’s Weekend Edition. “You have to know what the president thinks on any political issue, but you are also accountable to the American people.”
Kirby said a press secretary’s job is “to be honest” and tell Americans as much and as quickly as possible while answering tough questions from the press.
That’s where Katie Zacharia, who was fired last week, ran into trouble. Just two days after taking office, she faced scrutiny over how she answered questions from reporters during her first briefing. Zacharia was visibly nervous, she only answered a handful of questions and largely stuck to a script of talking points.
But it was describing herself as a lawyer that brought her greater scrutiny. It was eventually revealed that Zacharia had failed the California bar exam, meaning she was not a lawyer. Five days after starting work, she was absent.
Press officers are not required to be lawyers, but they must be able to defend themselves in front of journalists. Sean Spicer – one of several White House press secretaries during the first Trump administration – had a combative relationship with press.
Spicer regularly sparred with members of the media. He gained notoriety (while being questioned about the size of the crowd at Trump’s inauguration) when he told reporters, “sometimes we can disagree with the facts.”
NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” took particular delight in Spicer’s animosity toward the press. Actress Melissa McCarthy, who plays Spicer, imitated their contentious interactions with lines like “I came here to punch you in the face.”
This role is not designated by Congress, but it follows nearly 100 years of presidential custom and tradition.
According to the White House Historical Association, in the late 1800s, journalists began covering the White House as a regular feature. In 1929, President Herbert Hoover appointed journalist George Akerson to speak on his behalf. Akerson is considered the first official White House press secretary.
Since then, 37 people have held this position. In 1993, Dee Dee Myers became the first female press secretary. Karine Jean-Pierre made history in 2022 as the first Black press secretary in the White House as well as the first openly gay person to hold the position.
While traveling with President Ronald Reagan in 1981, White House press secretary James Brady was shot and killed during an assassination attempt on the president. The briefing room where press officers stand behind the podium and answer questions from reporters is named after Brady.
A briefing is like an “intellectual chess game,” said Ari Fleischer, a former White House press secretary under George W. Bush. previously told NPR. The hardest part of the job, he says, is knowing what not to say.
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