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Trump just fooled around with Susie Wiles over Katie Zacharia. And he found out

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Cite

Feinberg, A. (2026, October 16). Trump just fooled around with Susie Wiles over Katie Zacharia. And he found out. The Independent. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-katie-zacharia-fired-wiles-analysis-b3068392.html

Dated from the outlet's own feed. Check the original for its byline.

The Independent · collected 2026-10-16 · by Andrew Feinberg

Quick Summary

President Donald Trump abruptly dismissed White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia after only five days on the job during a Friday press conference while aboard Marine One. The move came shortly after Trump expressed concern over her treatment by the media but reportedly made the decision without informing Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, who had been working to hire Scott Jennings for the position instead. This incident highlights potential tensions between Trump and Wiles regarding control within the administration, as it marks a deviation from Wiles' careful management style aimed at stabilizing the White House during Trump's second term.
Written by AI on 2026-10-17, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

Story summary

On October 18, 2026, Katie Zacharia resigned just five days after being appointed as the White House Press Secretary by President Donald Trump, following a series of controversial appearances and poor performances during interviews on Fox News. Her short tenure raised questions about the role's relevance in an administration where the president often communicates directly with the media and public.

Zacharia had been selected to replace Karoline Leavitt, who left the position at the end of August after the birth of her second child. Prior to this role, Zacharia worked as a communications advisor for Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), which owns Truth Social, and previously served briefly as a spokesperson at the Department of Homeland Security.

Text messages obtained by The New York Post revealed that Zacharia herself had pushed for the contentious interviews that led to her departure. These appearances included awkward interactions with Fox News hosts Sean Hannity and "Fox & Friends," where she struggled to answer questions about her qualifications, including not passing the California bar exam.

The incident has sparked debate about the importance of the press secretary role in an administration where direct presidential communication is frequent, highlighting a broader dilemma for how the White House manages media relations.

Written for “Katie Zacharia Hired As Press Secretary” on 2026-11-04, grounded in this article and the 120 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 Katie Zacharia Hired As Press Secretary
Politics · 121 article(s) covering the same event. Compare every outlet's account →

Compared with similar articles

This article reads leans left and hedges 8% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
Donald Trump is looking for a replacement of Susie Wiles; 'She's burned a lot of people': Report Different event
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Hedges 2 of 15 claims Outlet record 59/100
“The articles discuss different aspects of President Trump's interactions and decisions involving Susie Wiles; Article A focuses on her potential replacement as Chief of Staff, while Article B centers around a conversation with Katie Zacharia about how she has been treated by the news.”
Trump’s White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles Is in ‘Some Deep Sh*t’ Different event
Zeteo
⚖️ Leans left Hedges 0 of 20 claims
“Both articles mention Trump and Susie Wiles but describe different content and contexts.”
‘Don’t have to do this’: Trump tells new press secy Zacharia she can quit if she wants Same event
Times of India
Hedges 2 of 30 claims Outlet record 59/100
Trump casts doubt on press secretary Katie Zacharia’s future: ‘we’re gonna talk’ Same event
South China Morning Post
Hedges 1 of 5 claims Outlet record 62/100
Trump casts doubt on press secretary Katie Zacharia’s future Same event
CBC News
Hedges 1 of 8 claims Outlet record 60/100
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⚖️ Leans left Hedges 7 of 31 claims Outlet record 95/100
Trump aide helped set up ‘sanctioned hit’ on Katie Zacharia: Report Different event
Times of India
Hedges 6 of 28 claims Outlet record 59/100
“The articles describe different aspects of Katie Zacharia's situation; one focuses on Trump defending her against criticism and the other reports on Susie Wiles allegedly setting up a tough interview for her.”
Trump pick Zacharia gets off to bumpy start in unusual first press briefing: ‘My president, I mean my husband’ Different event
The Independent
⚖️ Leans right further right than this Hedges 0 of 15 claims Outlet record 59/100
“While both articles discuss Katie Zacharia's press briefing and mention President Trump's involvement, they describe different aspects of related events occurring on different days.”
Trump press secretary Katie Zacharia’s law background called into question Different event
Global News
⚖️ Leans left Hedges 4 of 19 claims Outlet record 63/100
“Article A discusses Katie Zacharia's background being called into question, while Article B reports on President Trump defending her against criticism during a press conference. They describe related but different events.”
'Susie Wiles gave the kill order': Brutal inside story of Katie Zacharia's firing and how Trump's Ice Maiden laid primetime 'trap' to snare disaster press secretary... as TV star frontrunner to replace her is revealed Different event
Daily Mail
⚖️ Leans left Hedges 0 of 48 claims Outlet record 69/100
“The articles discuss different aspects of Katie Zacharia's firing; Article A focuses on Trump's reaction and comments about her treatment, while Article B provides an inside story of her dismissal and its context.”
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
25
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
8%
2 of 25 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
Leans left
of the writing, not the subject · beta estimate
Publisher signals
59/100
The Independent's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
121
Politics
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-10-17 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

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Running correction rate · 10 correction(s)
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Who wrote this

Andrew Feinberg
32 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 Watch as The Independent’s White House correspondent Andrew Feinberg explains why Donald Trump has only himself to blame for a brutal midterm election night Democrats are projected to take back control of both the House and the Senate after a series of major wins dubbed a “Blue Tsunami”.
2026-11-04 · assertive framing · Watch: Andrew Feinberg explains why Trump only has himself to blame for brutal midterm election night
🔮 His appearance at the Lincoln Memorial capped a month of campaigning that saw him deliver his signature MAGA rallies to smaller, less enthusiastic crowds in reliably Republican states where his party’s candidates are nonetheless in danger of losing to Democratic opponents — an outcome that would have been unthinkable a month ago.
2026-11-02 · assertive framing · Trump drops jaws with low-energy ramble about Reflecting Pool day before Americans decide his party’s fate
🔮 Trump has baselessly suggested that Alaska voters are so ignorant that they would not know the meaning of the word “incumbent” and the presence of the second Sullivan on the ballot led Trump to push for legal action over concerns that votes intended for the incumbent would be siphoned away.
2026-11-02 · assertive framing · Trump sees red in one-word all-caps rage post after court says he can’t stop Alaska’s two Dan Sullivans ballot
🔮 With days to go until what polls indicate will be a brutal midterm election for President Donald Trump and his Republican Party, the man who has implored MAGA voters to “pretend I’m on the ballot” is starting to panic.
2026-10-30 · assertive framing · Trump’s flip-flop and freakout over weekend rallies expose a president in panic mode
🔮 Who could have guessed that Trump would get so spun up over a law that’s been on the books since Abraham Lincoln was president?
2026-10-24 · mixed framing · Trump lost control and ordered me to be ‘quiet’ in the Oval Office. Then it got personal
🔮 “Well, I guess you could say for that particular purpose, for the purpose of allowing a man who was thinking he was going to be in prison for life out.
2026-10-22 · assertive framing · Trump weighs in after his envoy calls Putin a ‘humanitarian’
🔮 “Well, I guess you could say for that particular purpose, for the purpose of allowing a man who was thinking he was going to be in prison for life out.
2026-10-21 · assertive framing · Trump weighs in after his envoy calls Putin a ‘humanitarian’
🔮 Who could have guessed that Trump would get so spun up over a law that’s been on the books since Abraham Lincoln was president?
2026-10-20 · mixed framing · Trump lost control and ordered me to be ‘quiet’ in the Oval Office. Then it got personal
🔮 It didn’t take Susie Wiles more than a few day to put a stop to the buzz in Washington that predicted her time as chief of staff was up.
2026-10-20 · assertive framing · Trump’s botched execution on Katie Zacharia speaks volumes about Susie Wiles’ future
🔮 President Donald Trump said on Monday that the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is “70% filled with water and looking good” and warned that anyone who damages it again “will GO TO JAIL,” even though federal prosecutors appointed by Trump himself have told a court the pool’s lining was ruined by a botched installation and not by vandals.
2026-10-19 · assertive framing · Trump dares vandals to damage his almost-refilled Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool
Also by Andrew Feinberg
Watch: Andrew Feinberg explains why Trump only has himself to blame for brutal midterm election night
2026-11-04 · The Independent
Trump’s one-word cap post reveals his sudden lame-duck role after losing Congress
2026-11-04 · The Independent
Trump drops jaws with low-energy ramble about Reflecting Pool day before Americans decide his party’s fate
2026-11-02 · The Independent
Trump sees red in one-word all-caps rage post after court says he can’t stop Alaska’s two Dan Sullivans ballot
2026-11-02 · The Independent
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 32 articles by Andrew Feinberg →

Topics

American Georgia Independent Marine One White House

Subjects

Trump PERSON · 6× Wiles PERSON · 4× Zacharia PERSON · 3× Katie PERSON · 2× Scaramucci PERSON · 2× White House ORG · 2× Donald Trump PERSON · 1× Independent ORG · 1× Katie Zacharia PERSON · 1× Marine One ORG · 1×

Narrative

Wiles has managed to spend much of the last two years — the longest tenured chief oif staff he has had — standing between the president and that impulse, and while the administration has shed cabinet secretaries and ambassadors, the West Wing itself has not been beset by leaks and internal feuds the way it had been under any of her predecessors.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-10-17
🔮 You think about it, but I wouldn’t reconsider.
2026-10-17 · The Independent
Trump just fooled around with Susie Wiles over Katie Zacharia. And he found out · assertive framing

Claims (25 extracted, 2 hedged)

Log in Marine One was already running on the South Lawn when Donald Trump stopped to take questions on Friday, and the first thing he wanted to talk about was how badly Katie Zacharia had been treated. asserted
Zacharia → log → Friday
“I said to Katie just two minutes ago, I said, Katie, you know, you don’t have to do this,” he said. asserted
he → say → this
I’ve never seen anything like it. asserted
I → see → it
And I said, I said to her honestly, if I were you, I’d reconsider. asserted
I → say → her
You think about it, but I wouldn’t reconsider. asserted
I → think → it
She’s got a beautiful husband and family. asserted
She → get → husband
Maybe it’s not for her.” asserted
it → ’ → her
He was still talking about wanting her to “have a good life” when the helicopter lifted off for a rally in Georgia. asserted
helicopter → talk → Georgia
A White House official confirmed a few minutes later that she was out. asserted
she → confirm → ?
Nobody keeps an official list of the shortest tenures in that job, but the record-holder until now has been Anthony Scaramucci, who made it 11 days as communications director in 2017. asserted
who → keep → 2017
Zacharia got to five, and unlike Scaramucci she managed it without calling a reporter to curse out her colleagues. asserted
she → get → colleagues
Scaramucci noted the change of hands on X on Friday afternoon. asserted
Scaramucci → note → afternoon
“Records are made to be broken,” he wrote. asserted
he → make → ?
“But I take no pleasure in other people’s pain.” asserted
I → take → pain
Zacharia will remain a punchline in American political discourse because of the speed with which was sacked. asserted
Zacharia → remain → which
But it was her hiring in the first place that could mark a troubling turning point in Trump’s second term. uncertain
that → mark → term
According to insiders who spoke to The Independent, Trump offered Zacharia the job without telling chief of staff Susie Wiles, who had been working for weeks on getting Scott Jennings, the CNN commentator who has spent two years defending Trump on a network that does not like him, to give up his lucrative TV contract and be Karoline Leavitt’s polished successor. uncertain
that → accord → contract
But Trump has been chafing in recent weeks at the few strictures Wiles’ White House leadership has put on him as he has grown increasingly frustrated at the lack of high-profile surrogates defending him on television. asserted
he → chafe → television
So he reached out through that television to bring on one of the few surrogates he saw — right out of central casting, as he likes to say — and she said yes. asserted
she → reach → casting
He appears to have forgotten that that is how he hired a great many people between 2017 and 2021 and how a great many of them ended up gone within months. asserted
many → appear → months
Wiles has managed to spend much of the last two years — the longest tenured chief oif staff he has had — standing between the president and that impulse, and while the administration has shed cabinet secretaries and ambassadors, the West Wing itself has not been beset by leaks and internal feuds the way it had been under any of her predecessors. asserted
it → manage → predecessors
Once it got out that Trump had gone around Wiles, the talk inside the building turned to whether she was leaving, which set the president off and set the staff to jockeying. asserted
which → get → staff
Anyone who sat through 2017 and 2018 knows where that leads. asserted
that → sit → 2017
Wiles has avoided it for nearly two years by being the one person Trump does not go around. asserted
Trump → avoid → years
This week he went around her, and the result lasted five days. asserted
result → go → her
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