After her brief White House tenure came to an abrupt end, a psychologist and body language expert identified the specific moment he believes made it clear that President Donald Trump would fire former press secretary Katie Zacharia. The analysis was published by Alternet.

Zacharia, a right-wing commentator and one-time advisor with ties to Truth Social, Trump's social media platform, lasted just five days as White House press secretary before being pushed out by Trump, who had reportedly championed her for the position in the first place. The post is among the most visible in any administration: its holder stands at the podium to answer reporters' questions on the White House's behalf, which is why a rocky opening appearance tends to draw immediate scrutiny. Her dismissal followed a disastrous, widely mocked first and only press briefing, in which she took few questions and appeared to struggle with the basics of public speaking, as well as a scandal over her falsely claiming to be a lawyer.

Dr. John Paul Garrison, a and forensic psychologist who specializes in reading body language and regularly produces video analyses of major public figures, examined the situation in one of his latest videos, released on Friday. He pinpointed the "exact moment" he believes Zacharia's fate was sealed. Like the rest of his video work, the analysis is his own interpretation of public footage, not an account from inside the White House of how the decision was made.

Garrison pointed to the widely circulated footage of Zacharia standing behind Trump as reporters pressed her on which state she had passed the bar exam in. She claimed she had done so after moving to China. The assertion quickly collapsed under scrutiny, as reported: non-citizens are not permitted to take China's certification exam for lawyers, and passing it would still not have qualified her to practice law in the United States.

During the exchange, Trump appeared to do a double-take while staring back at Zacharia as she made her claim about China. Garrison argued that this was precisely the moment her fate was sealed.

"That double take right there was the moment," Garrison said. "President Trump doesn't like surprises, and he doesn't like being embarrassed. And when she just said that, when they asked when she passed the bar, when she said it was when she went to China, that was it."

Garrison also analyzed Zacharia's behavior during an interview with Sean Hannity, the Fox News host, that came shortly before her White House departure, asserting that she deployed a "huge smile" to conceal her real feelings.

"It's a very effective tool to hide how you actually feel because doing this and keeping the corners of your mouth up, not that hard to do," Garrison explained. "Now, obviously, there's no wrinkles next to her eyes, which is exactly how you'd see when somebody is actually feeling good or feeling happy. But you can see that her strategy, in order to give a specific impression for impression management, is to just maintain a smile whenever you're uncomfortable."

He concluded: "The first day for every White House press secretary doesn't have to go incredibly well, but the disaster that we saw with Katie Zachariah made it very clear that this was not going to last long. Once the question started coming up about whether or not she was actually an attorney, because she had apparently used that word through tweets and so on and so forth, it seemed like it was really only a matter of time."