Losing a high-profile government job in five days is rough. But insisting you don’t want it back while the internet watches you squirm online is apparently even rougher.
Katie Zacharia has spent the past week telling anyone who will listen that she isn’t angling for a return to the White House.
The former press secretary was fired by President Donald Trump after five days as her brief run imploded so publicly just weeks ago.
Former White House press secretary Katie Zacharia faces fresh mockery over a glowing post about Trump’s new chief of staff.
Zacharia then took to X to share a message that had critics rolling their eyes. The post delivered a standard dose of MAGA loyalty.
But her choice of praise and the warning she added at the end made people question her denials.
Zacharia’s time behind the podium was short even by Trump-world standards. The president announced her as White House press secretary on Oct. 9 to replace Karoline Leavitt, who stepped away at the end of the summer.
Her first official day was a Monday. By Friday, Oct. 16, the White House confirmed she was on her way out.
In between, she held one briefing that ran about 14 minutes and took three questions, faced scrutiny for calling herself a lawyer despite failing the California bar exam, and sat down for a rough Thursday night interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity.
Trump later said publicly that he had asked her, “Katie, do you need this?”
Five days earned her an online nickname: “half a Scaramucci.” The jab compares her tenure to Anthony Scaramucci’s 11-day stint as communications director in 2017. It also fueled whispers about the West Wing.
The Daily Beast relayed Politico reporting in which an anonymous source claimed then-chief of staff Susie Wiles helped steer her into the Hannity interview as a “sanctioned hit.” The White House and Fox News both denied it.
In November, Republicans lost control of Congress in the midterms. Days later, Trump named Stephen Miller to replace Wiles as chief of staff. Miller’s appointment took effect Nov. 9.
That same day, the New York Post reported three Trump allies claimed Zacharia had tried to impress him and Miller to land a second chance.
Others familiar with her said some of her remarks were made in jest.
Zacharia shut it down fast. “I maintain a loyal and great relationship with the President, but this story is utterly fake,” she told TMZ. On X, she called it “quite ironic” that after “Susie out, Miller in,” anonymous sources could only “leak more fake news about me.”
Then came her Nov. 12 post. “Stephen Miller is the strongest Chief of Staff choice President Trump could have made, bar none,” she wrote.
She claimed, “the coordinated attacks on the people most loyal to the President are not organic.” Then came the line that set her replies on fire: “Anyone working against the President or his team should be shown the door—immediately.”
Yes, the woman shown the door after five days now wants others shown the door.
One self-described three-time Trump voter complained about corruption in Trump’s circle. Zacharia fired back, “I hear the Press Secretary job is still vacant. Maybe go for that and fight for the country?”
People didn’t let any of it slide on social media. “He also thought that you were the strongest choice for press secretary, so clearly he isn’t that great at hiring,” one user wrote. Another joked, “You weren’t in office long enough to make a Hot Pocket.”
“Like you were shown the door,” a third person replied, while another reminded her that “our elected officials are supposed to [be] loyal to the Constitution and laws of our land, NOT TRUMP.”
One commenter accused her of “vying with Natalie for brownie points from Trump,” a nod to the president’s devoted executive assistant Natalie Harp, who gushed over his “rare gift” in her first interview back in September.
The post also lands while the briefing room podium sits empty nearly a month after Zacharia’s exit. Trump offered the job to UFC boss Dana White on Nov. 7 before saying he was “sort of kidding,” and White passed, saying he didn’t want to be in politics.
Her glowing review is a hard sell for a man critics blame for Trump’s harshest immigration policies. People who knew Miller before Washington have also exposed troubling details about his past.
Whether Miller is reading her posts is anyone’s guess. Her Instagram bio still lists her as a former press secretary, and, judging by her replies, she hasn’t stopped thinking about the title either.
Stephen Miller is the strongest Chief of Staff choice President Trump could have made, bar none. The coordinated attacks on the people most loyal to the President are not organic. They are deliberate. There are still too many who are not loyal to the President or his agenda. They undermine, leak, and slow-walk. Anyone working against the President or his team should be shown the door—immediately.
— Katie Zacharia (@KatieZacharia) November 12, 2026
