CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Claims Donald Trump Hired Katie Zacharia for One Reason

CNN's Kaitlan Collins recently made a claim as to why Donald Trump hired Katie Zacharia as White House Press Secretary. Zacharia was announced to be taking over the role in a post by Trump on Truth Social. However, she was fired after five days.

Kaitlan Collins describes Trump's reported dissatisfaction with Katie Zacharia's briefing

Kaitlan Collins from CNN recently took to X to share her thoughts on why Donald Trump might have hired Katie Zacharia as the new White House Press Secretary, only to then fire her days later.

Zacharia took over the role after Karoline Leavitt resigned in August 2026.

In her post, Collins suggested the President was "growing irritated" with how long the process to replace Leavitt was taking. She said Trump rushed to hire Zacharia as Press Secretary because he "wanted more people defending him on TV." According to the journalist, after a difficult first briefing, Trump allegedly believed Zacharia had failed at that task and "knew she needed to go."

Collins added, "I'm told Trump was embarrassed by the coverage of Zacharia's briefing and when he polled other aides about her, Zacharia had few allies willing to stand up for her or defend her performance."

In a post on October 12 on Truth Social , Trump announced Zacharia as the new White House Press Secretary. He mentioned that he believed she would do a "fantastic job" in her first briefing. However, Zacharia's first press interaction came under heavy scrutiny after she appeared to fumble parts of her speech.

A White House official later confirmed that Zacharia would leave the role after a rocky start. After firing her, Trump told reporters he asked Zacharia to reconsider the role because of how the press treated her. He said, "I told her, 'I think you're better off being happy.' I want her to have a good life. I don't want her to have a life like she's led the last three days" (via CBC ).