White House press secretary Katie Zacharia departs role after five days

Katie Zacharia is leaving her position as White House press secretary just one week after President Donald Trump named her to the role, Al Jazeera has confirmed.

Fox News reported on Friday that Trump said there was no urgency in finding someone to replace her. Earlier that day, Trump told reporters he had advised Zacharia to reconsider remaining in the post, saying he did not want her to keep facing difficulty from the media and that he had suggested she take time to think it over.

Zacharia had said she was contacted about the position the previous week. She took over from Karoline Leavitt. When announcing her appointment, Trump had referred to her as an attorney. However, questions arose over the past week about whether Zacharia, who studied law at Pepperdine University in California, had actually passed the bar exam needed to practise as a lawyer.

In a Thursday interview with Fox News, Zacharia acknowledged that she had not passed the bar exam.

Her time in the role lasted five days, half as long as Anthony Scaramucci's ten-day stint as White House communications director during Trump's first term in office.