Katie Zacharia’s first briefing was a nervy smash-and-grab raid

Published October 13, 2026 11:37am ET | Updated October 13, 2026 11:37am ET



Welcome to Tuesday’s Washington Secrets. If a friend sent you this and you’d like to sign up, CLICK HERE. We were in the room (a rather colorful room) for Katie Zacharia’s first briefing as White House press secretary. It was short and sweet. But she already has eyes on setting the record for longest press secretary tenure under Trump. She’ll have to learn Secrets’ rules of press secretarying…

It probably made sense in the strategy meeting. A new press secretary had only been in the job for 24 hours before being sent out for her first briefing, so keep it short, drop a news bombshell and get out before anything can go wrong.

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