Trump names Katie Zacharia White House press secretary after CNN finds old conspiracy posts
Trump has picked Katie Zacharia, a former Department of Homeland Security staffer and Trump Media adviser, to replace Karoline Leavitt. A CNN investigation found she had shared Pizzagate-linked accusations against Democrats on social media.
A new face at the White House podium
Trump announced on Friday, 9 October, that he had appointed Katie Zacharia as White House press secretary, succeeding Karoline Leavitt, who stepped down in August to spend more time with her children. Zacharia had worked as a communications adviser at Trump Media and Technology Group, the company behind Truth Social, since June 2026. Earlier in 2026 she joined the public affairs office of the Department of Homeland Security. Reports say the search for a successor was difficult, because several suitable candidates had previously criticized Trump and were ruled out.
Trump praised her in his announcement.
She has an unblemished record of support
Her first White House briefing took place on Tuesday, 13 October, at 9:30 a.m. Washington time. The role involves regular briefings with reporters, and Zacharia wrote on X that serving the president was an enormous honour.
- Joins the public affairs office of the Department of Homeland Security
- Becomes a communications adviser at Trump Media and Technology Group
- Karoline Leavitt steps down as White House press secretary
- Trump announces Zacharia as the new press secretary on Friday
- Zacharia holds her first White House briefing at 9:30 a.m. Washington time
Posts that resurfaced
A CNN investigation of her social media content, much of it dating back to 2022, found that Zacharia had revived accusations rooted in Pizzagate, the false theory that Hillary Clinton and other Democrats ran a child abuse network from a Washington pizzeria. In Truth Social posts she repeatedly accused John Podesta, a former White House chief of staff and former head of Clinton's election campaign, of pedophilia. In a 2022 post she wrote about Hollywood elites:
the radical left-wing elite figures in Hollywood are sick, pedophiles, and cannibals
Other shared content included claims that Michelle Obama was biologically a man, a post by far-right activist Ali Alexander, and a theory that Vladimir Putin was fighting a secret network that included Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Joe Biden and George Soros. Reporting also cites a post suggesting that comedian Joan Rivers died under mysterious circumstances after joking that Barack Obama is gay. Zacharia also claimed that covid vaccination had caused miscarriages in eight in ten pregnant women, and in early 2026 she argued for a third Trump term, although the Constitution forbids it.
Deleted messages and a mifepristone claim
CNN also found deleted posts criticizing the second Trump administration. In June 2025 she called for the suspension of habeas corpus, in July 2025 she repeated claims that the Department of Justice was covering up information in the Jeffrey Epstein case, and in December 2025 she warned that without a change of course the 2026 midterm elections would be 'a bloodbath' for Republicans. Last year she claimed on X that the abortion pill mifepristone was connected to the maker of Zyklon B, the gas used in World War II concentration camps. A corporate connection exists only in a tenuous form, and mifepristone was developed in the 1980s by a French company. Her Truth Social account has also promoted the QAnon conspiracy theory and repeated the claim that the 2020 election was stolen.
Background and career
Sources give her age as 41 and 42. She studied law and political science at Pepperdine University in California and, as a student, interned with the Republican Party and the White House under George W. Bush. After graduating she spent three years in Beijing and was active with Fix California, a political group that promotes conservative ideas in the state. Since 2024 she has worked as a political analyst for several outlets, including Fox News, where she regularly attacked prominent Democrats. Zacharia has said her biological mother considered abortion before agreeing to adoption, an experience that made her a fierce opponent of abortion rights. She is married to film producer Tyler Zacharia and they have four children.