Katie Zacharia left her position as White House press secretary less than five days after beginning the role, the BBC has confirmed.

Her departure followed a brief and troubled public debut on Tuesday, when she conducted a press briefing that lasted under 15 minutes and addressed only three questions. During the session she appeared visibly nervous, read prepared remarks from a notebook, and mistakenly referred to her husband as the president.

In the hours before the announcement of her exit, President Donald Trump spoke to reporters near Marine One, saying he had advised her "you don't have to do this if you don't want to" and "honestly, if I were you, I'd reconsider". He later suggested she had been treated harshly by the media and implied she might be better off stepping down.

Zacharia had faced sustained scrutiny over her professional background. She had been publicly identified by Trump and others as an attorney, though she later acknowledged she had not passed a U.S. bar exam. During a Thursday interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, she was questioned about her legal qualifications and responded that she had practiced international transaction law while in China, where she said she held the necessary credentials.

On Friday, she appeared on Fox & Friends, where host Lawrence Jones asked whether she still held the president’s confidence. She declined to answer directly but stated she hoped to regain the trust of those around her.

Her departure marks the shortest tenure for any press secretary in Trump’s administration. In 2017, Anthony Scaramucci left his post as communications director after ten days. Scaramucci referenced the milestone on social media, noting that records are meant to be broken but expressing discomfort at another’s professional downfall.

The exit comes as the United States approaches the November midterm elections, which will determine control of Congress. Democratic leaders have cited the episode as evidence of instability within the administration, with House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries posting on X that "The White House Press Secretary is gone. MAGA extremists continue to fall apart."

Zacharia’s brief stint was characterized by repeated questions about her preparedness and legal history, which she addressed inconsistently over the course of the week.