Firing Her Doesn't Fix Who Hired Her
Breakingranksblog |Tampa, Florida | Sources embeded
Katie Zacharia got the call about the press secretary job on a Wednesday. She had the offer that Friday, October 9, she said (Khaleej Times). The Daily Beast reported that Trump phoned her from the Oval Office after aides praised her television appearances (Daily Beast). That same Friday, Trump announced her on Truth Social and called her "an attorney" (NBC Washington/AP).
He also told us exactly why he picked her. "She has an unblemished record of support, and has been a loyal and brilliant supporter, right from the beginning," Trump wrote. "She is, likewise, a devoted fan and member of MAGA!" (NPR via WGCU).
The following Tuesday, October 13, she took the podium for her first briefing. Asked where she passed the bar, she appeared to answer, "When I moved to China" (Philadelphia Inquirer). By Thursday, she had acknowledged she never passed (Khaleej Times). On Friday, October 16, two officials told CBS News she was being removed, and that she was expected to take another job in the administration (CBS News). One week, announcement to exit.
The bar exam is her problem. The hire is his. Trump went looking for a fan, found one on television, and put her in front of the country without anyone checking the one credential he bragged about. I give him no credit for the speed of the firing.
I spent 23 years in the Air Force, and the rule there was simple: you check the paperwork before you sign it. Where was she licensed? What did her job at Fix California involve? Who supervised her legal work? You would ask those questions before you hired a bookkeeper. So who asked them about her?
The warnings were public before October 9
Start with the State Bar of California. Its attorney search is free, online, and open to anyone, and Zacharia is not in it. A bar spokesman told the Associated Press it had "no record of Kate Sharon Zacharia or Kate Sharon Black" licensed in the state (NBC Washington/AP). Typing in her married name and her maiden name takes less time than reading this paragraph.
Then the job title. Her LinkedIn lists her as general counsel for Fix California, the group Richard Grenell started (NBC Washington/AP). Her California Globe author page claims "extensive experience in political advocacy, international corporate law, and non-profit work" (NBC Washington/AP). A general counsel with no license on file in her home state is the first thing a personnel office should flag.
Then China. Her LinkedIn lists her as an associate at Zhong Lun, a Beijing firm, from 2011 to 2013, and China's national legal qualification exam is open only to Chinese citizens, as AP noted (NBC Washington/AP). Anyone vetting an American whose listed law-firm job was in Beijing asks one question first: licensed where?
Then television, the place Trump found her. The Campaign for Accountability's complaint counts at least 18 TV appearances, from February 2025 through October 2026, in which she allegedly described herself as a lawyer (ABC News 4). Almost all of that span came before the announcement. Her Instagram bio described her as "Wife, Mom, & Lawyer" (NBC Washington/AP).
And the federal government had already hired her once. Her LinkedIn lists two months earlier this year as deputy assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security (ClickOnDetroit/AP). That makes two federal jobs in one year.
A newsletter did the work in days. Popular Information queried all 50 states and Washington, D.C., and found no license in any of them (NBC Washington/AP). The White House had the same internet.
So the White House failed in one of two ways. Nobody looked, or somebody looked and decided a devoted fan didn't need a license. I can't tell you which. Neither one is acceptable from the people who staff the White House.
The White House answer came from communications director Steven Cheung, who called her "uniquely qualified and whip smart" (NBC Washington/AP). Nobody asked whether she was smart. Reporters asked where she was licensed, and the answer turned out to be nowhere anyone could find.
The general counsel who never provided legal services
SFGATE reported getting a reply signed "Katie," from an email address associated with her at Fix California, that said, "I never provided legal services" (SFGATE). Her own statement through the White House said something else: "I practiced international transaction law, with all the appropriate credentials" (NBC Washington/AP).
Either she was the group's lawyer or she wasn't. An employer settles which one before repeating the title to the country.
None of this proves she practiced law without a license. Even the watchdog complaint concedes her actual legal work is not publicly known, and she has not been charged with anything (complaint text, ABC News 4). Nobody needs to invent a crime. The record already shows a personnel operation that left basic vetting to reporters.
We have seen this hiring process before
Anthony Scaramucci started as communications director on July 21, 2017. On July 31, John Kelly fired him in his first move as chief of staff (Foreign Policy). Eleven days. The quick exit is not new in this White House, and neither is the hire that caused it.
Michael Flynn is the case where somebody knew. Barack Obama warned Trump against naming him national security adviser in a 90-minute meeting on November 10, 2016. After the inauguration, Sally Yates warned White House officials that Flynn had misled Vice President Mike Pence about his contacts with Russia's ambassador, which left him open to Russian blackmail. Trump fired Flynn after 24 days on the job, 18 days after learning of Yates's concerns (Voice of America). Flynn had run the Defense Intelligence Agency (Voice of America). A long résumé does nothing for a president who waves off the warnings.
Then came Ronny Jackson, Trump's White House physician, nominated to run Veterans Affairs. He withdrew on April 26, 2018, amid misconduct allegations he called "completely false and fabricated." The White House said he underwent a "thorough vetting process" that included four background investigations (CBS News). He never became VA secretary, so this was a withdrawal, not a firing.
Fine. But that department serves the men and women I served beside. A background investigation tells you a man can be trusted. It doesn't tell you he can run a department that size, and trusting your doctor doesn't excuse a president from asking.
I'm not putting these people in one pile marked "bad people." I'm putting the man who appointed them under review: what he knew, whose objections he heard, and which qualifications he decided were enough. With Zacharia, he told us the qualification in writing. She was a fan.
The firing is the part we watch
Brookings recorded turnover in 60 of 65 tracked senior positions during Trump's first term, or 92 percent (Brookings). That does not mean he fired 92 percent of his staff. The count includes resignations and promotions and excludes Cabinet secretaries (Brookings tracker). A number should carry only the weight it can bear.
Brookings also found more transition preparation and lower first-year senior-staff turnover in Trump's second term than in his first: just under 30 percent in 2025, against a little over a third in 2017 (Brookings). Give him that. The same report suggests the lower rate may reflect hiring for loyalty. Zacharia is what that trade costs when nobody checks the paperwork.
I can't see inside the room where they picked her, and neither can you. I don't need to. Trump's own post names the qualification, and the bar database was open to anyone.
Hiring happens behind a closed door. Firing makes the headlines. So the firing gets graded, and the hiring never does. This time the fan is expected to keep a government job, and the process that put her at the podium keeps running.
A press secretary owes the country accurate answers. Veterans deserve a VA secretary picked for the work. National security demands that warnings count for more than enthusiasm.
The dismissal may have been necessary. It does not refund the judgment Trump spent making the appointment.
Before the next announcement, I want somebody in that room to ask the ordinary questions, check the answers, and be allowed to say no.
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