Katie Zacharia held her first White House press briefing on October 13, 2026, taking the podium a day after the White House announced it. "I am so honored to work for President Trump and the American people as the new White House press secretary," she said. "I want to thank President Trump for his trust that he has placed in me. I have wanted to work for him for a very long time."
Zacharia's debut came with the midterm campaign in full swing. "I'm looking forward to working with each of you as well, especially as we are in the middle of the midterm blitz with energy and excitement," she said. "Never seen before in the history of midterms thanks to President Trump."
The New Media Seat Stays
Asked about the briefing room's new media seat, Zacharia said the arrangement her predecessor installed would not just survive her tenure but grow.
"My predecessor, Caroline Levitt did an incredible job and I completely agree with the choice of new media seat," she said. "We are absolutely going to keep it and we're going to expand on it to the extent possible. We love new media and we want to be able to embrace it."
Ambassador Guilfoyle Asked to Resign
Zacharia also announced a personnel decision. "We have asked Ambassador Gelfoyle to resign," she said. "She has been a wonderful asset to the team and we wish her wealth."
Youngstown, and More Stops Coming
The press secretary pointed to the previous night's rally in Youngstown, Ohio, as evidence of the president's pull on the trail. "The arena was overflowing with enthusiasm as thousands came out to support President Trump as well as special guest Jake Paul and football legend John Gruden," she said.
At that rally, she said, the president announced the Department of War has officially selected Cleveland, Ohio as the new home for the U.S. Navy's submarine component repair center. "This massive 46,000 square foot facility will manufacture repair and maintain key parts for virtually all new and existing submarines," she said. "This is historic."
Zacharia said more travel is coming. "You can expect more of the mid-term blitz," she said. "Just now, we've added Kentucky. And we have a few other stops as he goes down to Florida. So he'll be Georgia, Kentucky, and Florida." The White House also has rallies planned in Alaska, Arizona, Montana, and Georgia, she said, building off recent stops in Tennessee, New York, Texas, and Nebraska.
The Record, by the Numbers
Zacharia walked through what she described as the accomplishments of President Trump's second term so far. "Real wages are up 1.2 percent since President Trump took office with average annual earnings outpacing inflation by $800," she said. "Under Biden, real wages fell nearly 4 percent with the average private sector worker's annual purchasing power declining by nearly $3,000 annually."
She said President Trump is "the first president in modern history to actually lower prescription drug prices, delivering the biggest drop in 63 years," and credited his second term with "more than 1 million private sector jobs," including nearly 112,000 factory construction jobs and 72,000 manufacturing jobs this year alone.
On energy, she said the administration "secured the biggest oil deal in world history, delivering the U.S. majority control of more than 65 billion barrels of proven oil reserves in Venezuela," and that the U.S. "achieved record domestic oil and gas production in 2025 and record crude and petroleum product exports in 2026." She cited $1.4 trillion in investment from the United Arab Emirates, $600 billion from Apple, and $340 billion from Amazon.
Zacharia pointed to a $15 billion steel complex Missabi Metallics will build in Iowa — "the largest steel plant ever built in the United States" — creating 1,750 permanent jobs and supporting up to 6,000 construction jobs, plus a new shipyard in Maryland with Endurol that she said would create about 3,100 direct jobs. She also described a South Korea energy investment package of up to $200 billion, including as much as $120 billion for eight large-scale nuclear power plants, $54 billion tied to the Alaska LNG pipeline and terminal, and $22.3 billion for a six gigawatt natural gas facility in Texas.
On fraud, she said the administration has "uncovered over $260 billion of fraud," stopped $72 billion annually through administrative actions, and recovered $58.9 billion through indictments, settlements, and civil monetary penalties. She said fentanyl trafficking across the southern border is down 56 percent and fentanyl-linked deaths fell 22 percent in a single year.
Zacharia, who has four children ranging in age from 12 to 6, said she intends to keep her family central to the job.
"My husband is out here for the week, because we have two birthdays in our family, and we are very, very protective of celebrating birthdays as a family," she said. "I intend to, to the extent possible, include my family, include my kids in my work, though my work will be demanding, they will always be a priority."
She said that example was set from the top. "President Trump is the most family friendly president we've ever had," Zacharia said. "He has hired more women with families, and the fact that he knew I had four kids and he knew that this job would be demanding and still places trust in me shows that I know I'm capable of being able to step up to that."
