At 12:07 this afternoon, the White House abruptly canceled all of Donald Trump’s scheduled events, right before he was scheduled to leave, and told the press that the President of the United States would not be seen again for the rest of the day.
Instead of attending a MAGA Inc. fundraiser at his Virginia golf course, Trump locked himself away inside the White House and went on a posting spree on Truth Social. He did not share anything that might explain his sudden disappearance from public view, but he did post a tribute to his former press secretary before announcing that her replacement, an even more dangerous woman with strong ties to QAnon and a troubling history of sharing and believing conspiracy theories, would begin her new role tomorrow morning.
In Donald Trump’s farewell post to Karoline Leavitt, which read more like a eulogy than a farewell, he called her “fantastic” and said she “could not have been better.” A half an hour later, he announced that his newest press secretary, 41-year-old Katie Zacharia from California, would begin her first day in the White House role tomorrow, with an “introductory news conference” on Tuesday at 9:30 AM from the Brady Briefing Room. He described her as someone who “has been with me, in spirit, from the very beginning.”
Karoline Leavitt made history as the youngest White House press secretary in American history and also for her uncanny ability to spin the truth and defend Donald Trump against criticism of even his most indefensible actions. After a short return to the White House following the birth of her second child, she left for good in August to “spend more time with her family,” only to announce just last week that she would be joining Fox News on November 1 as a contributor.
She joins a long list of others who have taken this very same career path. Sarah Huckabee Sanders left her position as Trump’s press secretary during his first term in 2019 and secured a job at Fox News just months later. Kayleigh McEnany did the same thing after Trump’s first term ended, eventually becoming a co-host of Outnumbered. Sean Spicer, Trump’s very first press secretary, took a slightly different path after Fox reportedly refused to offer him a position on the network; he ended up hosting his own show on Newsmax. That is what makes this revolving door between the White House and conservative media so important. The people standing behind that podium are supposed to be answering questions on behalf of the American government, not auditioning for their next television contract. But when defending the president through carefully choreographed, nationally watched performances can lead to a lucrative career in right-wing media, it raises serious questions about their motives and whether they are more interested in protecting the president than keeping the American people informed. Now Karoline Leavitt is following that same path. Of course, this isn’t exclusive to Trump’s administrations. Democratic ones have also seen their press secretaries make similar moves, but not nearly to the same extent.
Katie Zacharia is no doubt familiar with the career opportunities that have followed other Trump press secretaries. A native of Huntington Beach, California, a neighboring town to where I was born and raised, she was already part of Trump’s media ecosystem before being named White House press secretary. After leaving the Department of Homeland Security, she served as a senior communications adviser at Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social, Trump’s personal social media platform. She was employed by the company behind the platform he uses to communicate directly with his supporters, and she regularly appeared on Fox News and Newsmax as a commentator defending his agenda.
She worked at the Department of Homeland Security while it was still under the leadership and control of Kristi Noem. Her work was done alongside Corey Lewandowski, Noem’s reported romantic partner, who served as an unpaid special government employee but reportedly wielded wide influence over contracts, personnel, and operations inside the agency. The Daily Beast reported that Zacharia was ousted due to her close ties with Lewandowski, and that there was a blacklist of Noem loyalists inside DHS who were likely to get fired. She left the position when the Lewandowski-Noem scandal was intensifying, and House Democrats were heightening their investigation into Lewandowski over accusations of mismanagement and corruption. Zacharia denied that account and told Just the News that her departure was motivated by the strain of regular travel between Washington and California on her family, which makes it all the more strange that she is now returning to the very place she claimed she needed to leave.
Since Leavitt’s abrupt departure back in August, there have only been two formal briefings in the press room, one with Vice President J.D. Vance and the other with Attorney General Todd Blanche. For nearly two months, the room where the American people are supposed to receive truthful information from their government has sat empty. Tuesday morning, that changes, and the woman stepping behind that podium this time may very well be the most controversial of them all. Never before has there been someone who has spent years spreading conspiracy theories and disinformation online to the level she has.
For all of the bouncing around that Katie Zacharia has done, she has an impressive educational background, having earned both her undergraduate degree and a law degree from Pepperdine University. But it’s what she has repeatedly posted online over the years that raises serious questions about her judgment now that she is being entrusted with speaking on behalf of the United States government.
Back in 2022, she posted on her verified Truth Social account that: “The radical left Hollywood elitists are sick pedo cannibals. Change my mind.” She also reposted a message from far-right activist Ali Alexander that said, “Democrats want to mask and r*pe your children.” There was also a post that she tagged Donald Trump and Sean Hannity in, demanding to know why Fox News would not run a feature on “what a pedophile Podesta is.” After a conspiracy theorist named Robert David Steele died of COVID, she honored him by writing that he “was exposing the pedo rings of the elite cabal.”
These are not the words of a teenager still learning how to separate fact from fiction or how to use social media responsibly. These statements were made by an adult who, tomorrow morning, will begin speaking on behalf of the President of the United States.
Unfortunately, it only gets worse from there. She has even more history of openly engaging with QAnon, the conspiracy that claims Donald Trump is secretly fighting a satanic, cannibalistic, child-abusing network made up of Democrats, Hollywood figures, and members of what they call the deep state. When another Truth Social user posted that Trump drinking bottled water during an announcement reminded them of a QAnon-coded message from Trump, Zacharia responded: “I was wondering the same thing.” She also promoted the “Devolution” theory, that Trump secretly retained control of the United States military while he was out of office.
Since March 2022, she has posted over 2,500 times on Truth Social, including both original posts and ones that she reposted, and this doesn’t include posts she made and later deleted on other platforms, like one from June of 2025, when she called for the United States government to “suspend habeas corpus.”
Habeas corpus is one of the most fundamental constitutional protections against unlawful detention guaranteed to us, and something the Founding Fathers made sure to include in the Constitution because of the abuses of power they had witnessed under British rule. She wrote at the time that the federal government “should take over all of California because clearly you can’t be trusted to do a single thing.” She also shared an article falsely claiming that eight in ten women had a miscarriage after receiving the COVID vaccine. She accused “leftist transgender assailants” of being responsible for “at least a dozen” school shootings. She encouraged Trump to run for a third presidential term. And on a podcast, she falsely stated that the abortion pill mifepristone uses the same chemical that was used in Nazi extermination camps.
Every time I thought I had reached the bottom of what she has said, while I was researching for this post, she would outdo herself with the next thing I found. That is the most concerning part of her appointment to this important and highly visible position. She is not going to be a random commentator on a fringe network. Starting tomorrow morning, she will be the voice of the executive branch of the United States of America.
Hours after we first learned that she would be taking over the role, she appeared on Jesse Watters’ show on Fox News to give her first interview as the incoming press secretary. When asked about her new responsibilities, she said: “I just get to continue doing what I’ve been doing, which is promote all of the things that President Trump is doing on behalf of the American people.” She went on to close the interview by telling Watters: “I am looking forward to serving him and the American people and working more with you, Jesse.”
CNN reported that during the selection process, others who were under consideration for the position were disqualified after White House officials discovered they had previously criticized Donald Trump. They were not looking for credibility or experience with the press corps. They wanted someone who had demonstrated unwavering loyalty to the president and would continue to do so. Trump said so himself when he praised her “unblemished record of support.”
Having seen everything that comes from the Trump Regime, this is not a surprising move on their part. But it is still deeply disturbing because it takes us one more step further away from anything resembling a functioning democracy. When the person responsible for communicating government information to the American people is a QAnon believer who has called Democrats satanic cannibals, and called for the suspension of constitutional rights, we are moving dangerously close to a complete system collapse into state media propaganda under authoritarian rule.
This will not get better without our commitment to making it better. Pushing back against this government has to become our day job and our night job. For the next two-plus years, it has to be part of our everyday lives, in the conversations we have, the decisions we make about where our money goes, the people we support, and the voices we help keep alive. We need to be there to encourage each other to keep going and to keep resisting.
I know these next two years are going to be difficult. I know how exhausting it already feels, and I know that there are days when even opening the news is more than some of us can bear. But I also know how much it means when we see others pushing through all of that and still showing up to take a stand against what the Trump Regime and his enablers are doing to our country, and thus the world.
I’m writing this from a very soggy San Diego where we just had another band of what was Tropical Storm Rachel push through. All of my children are currently home after traveling for work and fun. I sat for a moment and thought about just how lucky I am to be close to them still, and what I want for them in the future, and for any children they might have someday. A stable government that truly works toward a world where they can feel safe, where their rights and freedoms are protected, where they can afford to build a life for themselves, and where they can look forward to the future instead of worrying about what might be taken away from them. A country where they can raise their own children with the same sense of security and possibility that I always hoped to give them. And a world where children everywhere have the chance to grow up in peace and security, without having their futures threatened by wars, instability, and the decisions of powerful people who seem to care so little about the lives they are affecting.
We are all being forced to learn to live in this strange place of joy and heartbreak right now, but I found comfort in knowing that Donald Trump hasn’t completely taken over our country and that there is still time to save it.
Knowing who we are fighting for, future generations, and just how much is on the line for the entire planet in November made me emotional and more determined than ever. But mostly it reminded me how much we still have to lose, which is exactly why we cannot afford to give up. We are doing this because we still believe there is a better future for our children, the children growing up around us, and for all of us. And as long as there are millions of us who still believe that and are willing to do something about it, Donald Trump has not and never will win. That is why I still have hope for America. And you should, too.
I’ll see you tomorrow,
Heather
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This commentary represents my personal opinions and analysis of matters of public concern, informed by publicly available information. Any references to individuals constitute opinion and commentary protected under the First Amendment.
Picture of the day: Earlier today, we couldn’t find this sweet girl. We searched everywhere for her before remembering that she hates to be cold. Granted, it was about 71 degrees today, but it has been in the high 80s for what feels like months now, so this was a big drop in temperature for her. She had dragged a blanket off the couch and into her dog bed and was sound asleep under it, ignoring us when we were calling for her. It wasn’t even raining when she did this. I have no idea how she is going to make it through another “harsh” San Diego winter.
Links to sources used in writing this article:
https://bnonews.com/whpool/d2_qyV1K
https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/trump-press-secretary-past-vaccine-183424021.html
https://www.rawstory.com/katie-zacharia-new-report-sick/
https://www.aol.com/articles/katie-zacharia-leaves-dhs-weeks-143101579.html
Someone needs to check with Pepperdine.
Zacharia has an “unblemished record of support.” I would say that defending tRump is WAY WORSE than a blemish; way worse than the worst pimple you’ve ever heard of. Any “record of support” concerning DJT is a disgusting growth that even sickens the doctors.