President Donald Trump’s new White House press secretary, Katie Zacharia, held an unusually short first press briefing with the media on Tuesday, concluding after less than 15 minutes and using just three reporters, all from conservative media outlets.
The press secretary spent more than half his time reading the remarks before answering questions from Breitbart, Fox News and the Daily Mail.
In response to the Daily Mail, she also revealed that the administration had asked Kimberly Guilfoyle, the US ambassador to Greece, to resign following allegations of misconduct.
Zacharia spent most of her remarks touting the president’s policies and framed her new position as working to “amplify” the president, something she said she did as a conservative commentator. She referenced those appearances, telling reporters Tuesday that she hoped to “take this in an official capacity.”
Now, Zacharia said, she hopes to “just build on, just amplify and multiply, as much as possible, all of the victories” that Trump “brings to the American people, so that the American people understand how much has changed in this brief period of time, what he has been able to accomplish.”
“My goal is to be able to communicate this in tandem with the president, because he is his best spokesperson and he will certainly lead the way in this area,” she added.
Asked by Fox News whether the United States had stopped sharing intelligence with Ukraine, she said she “would have to answer you about that.”
Zacharia will serve as the White House’s chief spokesperson in the final weeks leading up to the midterm elections, as the president embarks on a series of campaign trips to shore up his base. She said Trump would continue his midterm “blitz,” highlighting future stops in Kentucky, Georgia and Florida.
At the same time, voters are unhappy with the president’s performance, which Trump has blamed on a public relations glitch. Last month, an NBC News poll found that 41% of registered voters approved of the president’s performance, a second-term low.
The same poll found that voters largely disapprove of the president’s handling of the economy. The administration has failed to lead the way in ending the war in Iran, which has driven up fuel prices and contributed to inflation. And in recent days, some Republican candidates have broken with the president over his handling of tariffs and the war in Iran.
Trump said at a recent rally in Oklahoma that the administration “is not doing a good job of public relations.” At another event, he said the administration was “doing an extremely poor job of promoting it” despite doing an “extremely outstanding job running the country.”
Zacharia painted a rosy picture of the president’s popularity, describing the location of his Monday rally in Ohio as “brimming with enthusiasm.” Attendance at presidential rallies is reaching “record levels as enthusiastic, hard-working Americans line up and fill arenas to support President Trump and the Republicans,” she said.
NBC News previously reported that the president spoke in smaller, unfilled rooms.
Zacharia also expressed his views on the changing media landscape and discussed balancing his family life in response to other questions. She said she wanted to “expand” the new media headquarters “where possible”, referring to her predecessor Karoline Leavitt’s decision to include a seat in the briefing room for non-traditional media. Breitbart held the seat Tuesday.
Leavitt said in August that she was leaving the administration to spend more time with her family. Asked about balancing work with her own family in California, Zacharia said her husband and four children were moving to the Washington area.
“I love my family. I love them. They are my priority,” she said. “I love being with my children. The idea of not spending evenings with my children is completely unacceptable.”
She then accidentally referred to her husband as “my president” before correcting herself and saying he would be in Washington for the week.
The president announced Friday that he was tapping Zacharia to fill the position. She had been a senior communications advisor for the Trump Media & Technology Group.
In an interview with Fox News over the weekend, Zacharia said she looked forward to “working for President Trump,” adding, “this job is not about me.”
“This work is about him and how he wants to communicate with the American people,” she said Saturday.
Zacharia said Trump showed him the ballroom site during his visit to the White House on Friday.
“Just to see this vision that he has of building, but also of America and the greatness that America has and has always had and that he’s bringing back — I look forward to working for President Trump on Monday,” she said.
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