By BRUCE LOWITT
With the firing Friday of recently appointed White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia after only five days on the job, President Donald Trump has instituted a new policy for all political appointees – providing resignation letters when they get the job in order to speed up their departure, and hinting he had several candidates already in mind.
“I should’ve done this when I hired her. Show’s what I get for picking someone based on her long, blonde hair and MAGA makeup … not to mention her nice ass,” Trump said after Zacharia, 41, botched her first and only press briefing Tuesday, the day after Trump hired her.
He said he told her earlier, “Honestly, if I were you, I’d reconsider (the job),” adding, “Katie, do you need this? I don’t think you need this. I certainly don’t need this headache.”
Zacharia, previously a little-known Fox News commentator, replaced Karoline Leavitt, the White House’s youngest-ever press secretary, 27 when she was hired but an administration insider for years.
Zacharia’s five-day stint broke the shortest longevity record of White House officials previously held by Anthony Scaramucci, who lasted 11 days as communications director.
Trump said Zacharia might continue to work in his administration “in some form, but maybe a more pleasant form.” Leavitt, joining Fox News next month as an on-air contributor, observed, “Oh, shit. I think we all know what that means.”
Zacharia’s press briefing lasted 14 minutes. In most of it she read awkwardly from a president-praising script, confused the president with her husband, then took three questions before ending it. But during it she announced the firing of Kimberly Guilfoyle after 11 months as the U.S. ambassador to Greece.
“I’m sick of having to fire people in my administration who either get in trouble the moment they hit the ground – I’m talking about grifters like Kimberly,” Trump said ironically, “or who just don’t know how to do their job. They make it look like I don’t know what I’m doing when I hire them. Everyone knows I hire only the best people.
“It’d be a lot easier for me if I could just call them up, say, ‘I have your letter in hand; thanks for your service,’ and then announce their resignation to spend more time with their family or some shit like that.”
The president acknowledged that he already had several members of his cabinet in mind as resignation-letter writers but added that none of them “has done anything – yet – although a couple have come real close” to rising to the level of dismissal but from whom he would welcome “immediate quitting.”
Without naming anyone in particular, Trump said, “Anyone who pushes for nationally televised executions by firing squad is right up there.”
