A White House official confirmed to TIME that Katie Zacharia has been selected to serve as the next White House press secretary, replacing Karoline Leavitt who stepped down in August. It remains unclear whether Zacharia has accepted the appointment.
Katie Zacharia currently works as a communications adviser for Trump Media and Technology Group, which operates President Donald Trump's social media platform Truth Social. Before that role, she served as a spokesperson for former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and appears frequently on conservative outlets such as Fox News and Newsmax.
Karoline Leavitt stepped down from the role of White House press secretary on August 1, 2024.
He has also acknowledged that he has done a bad job of explaining how well the country is doing.
President Trump has criticized the effectiveness of his administration's public relations efforts, saying his accomplishments are being overshadowed ahead of the midterm elections because of poor PR work. He has also acknowledged that he has done a bad job of explaining how well the country is doing.
On October 9, 2026, several events occurred: Karoline Leavitt left the White House, Fox News hired her as an on-air contributor, Trump complained about poor public relations efforts, Trump acknowledged doing a bad job explaining the country's success, and Katie Zacharia was selected to replace Leavitt as press secretary.
Donald Trump said, "Our country has never done better. We cannot get the word across because of the fake news and because ... we're doing a great job in running the country, but we're not doing a good job of public relations." He also stated, "I've done a very bad job of explaining how, how good the country is doing." And he summed up the situation by claiming, "We're doing an extremely poor job of promotion, and an extremely great job of running the country."