Months before she landed one of the most visible jobs in Washington, Katie Zacharia wore a Trump hat to a cardio kickboxing class in California and wrote about the fallout for the New York Post.
On Friday, President Donald Trump named the 41-year-old attorney as his next White House press secretary.
He made the announcement on Truth Social, where he called her “outstanding.”
“She has an unblemished record of support, and has been a loyal and brilliant supporter, right from the beginning. She is, likewise, a devoted fan and member of MAGA,” the president wrote.
Zacharia fills a post that Karoline Leavitt vacated at the end of August.
Leavitt left to spend more time with her two young children, and the briefing room went more than a month without a permanent spokesperson.
CNN reported that Trump consulted Leavitt personally before choosing her successor.
Zacharia is a California native with a background in law, politics and cable news.
She entered politics as a college intern for the Republican National Committee, then earned her undergraduate degree at Pepperdine’s Seaver College and her law degree at its Caruso School of Law.
She went on to a career in corporate and political advocacy.
She worked in the White House Office of Political Affairs during the Bush administration and spent three years in China as outside counsel for the World Bank.
Viewers know her from television. Zacharia appears often on Fox News and Newsmax, where she serves as a prime-time contributor.
Her most recent government job was short.
She became a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman in February, replacing Tricia McLaughlin as the on-camera face of the administration’s immigration crackdown.
She walked away in March, about six weeks later.
Reports at the time linked her departure to her close ties to Corey Lewandowski, an adviser to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Zacharia flatly denied that account. She said she left because constant travel between Washington and her home in California was too hard on her family.
She has since worked as a communications adviser to Trump Media and Technology Group, the company behind Truth Social.
Zacharia is married to Hollywood producer Tyler Zacharia, and the couple has four children.
His producing credits include The Irishman, Countdown, The Starling, The Desperate Hour and Homestead.
She has more than 42,000 followers on Instagram. She has kept her children off social media entirely.
In a September Instagram post, she addressed the criticism that comes with her politics.
“Being in the world of politics, whether directly or adjacent, is BRUTAL and I personally take DAILY heat for it,” she wrote. She said she tries to “keep her family away from the flame” and described herself as “proud” of her husband’s work.
Her February essay for the New York Post recounted the gym incident.
Zacharia described herself as “a native Californian and lifelong conservative in this deep-blue state” and said she was “bullied” by people “on the left.” She wrote that her Trump hat “triggered an unhinged meltdown.”
She wrote that the instructor never forced her to remove the hat.
But “two additional liberal women wrote emails and waged online smear campaigns behind the scenes, leading to the owner of the gym to ask me not to wear my hat.”
“I responded that I would never take my Trump hat off to appease the left,” she continued.
She also tied the episode to constitutional rights.
“The First Amendment has no “discomfort” clause. A Team Trump or MAGA hat isn’t obscenity or hate speech – it is political expression supporting our sitting president.”
She ended the essay with a pledge. “I refuse to stay silent. My constitutional rights aren’t negotiable. Tyranny thrives when good people lack courage,” she wrote.
