President Donald Trump has selected Katie Zacharia as the next White House press secretary, replacing Karoline Leavitt. The appointment has drawn scrutiny after reports examined a series of deleted social media posts in which Zacharia expressed controversial views on vaccines, constitutional norms, immigration and other political issues.

Trump confirmed the appointment Friday in a post on Truth Social. Zacharia is a conservative commentator who previously worked in public affairs for the Department of Homeland Security for a few weeks at the start of 20206. She has also appeared occasionally on Fox News and Newsmax.

The press secretary serves as the administration’s chief spokesperson, answering reporters’ questions at regular briefings in the White House press briefing room — a podium where a spokesperson’s own past statements routinely come under renewed examination.

A report by MS NOW described Zacharia as a “relatively obscure figure within Trump’s political sphere.” It said she had ties to Trump’s personal business and longtime allies, including work as a senior communications adviser at Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social.

On Saturday, The Bulwark reported on Zacharia’s past public and online remarks. The report described what it called “a sordid online history of spreading vaccine conspiracy theories, calling for the upending of constitutional norms, and encouraging the president to run for a third term in office.” It said the positions expressed in her now-deleted X posts could raise questions when she takes the podium in the White House press briefing room.

“For example, how committed is Zacharia to the rule of law?” reporter Brendan Hartnett wrote. “In a series of deleted tweets, she called for suspending habeas corpus, one of the oldest and most fundamental safeguards of individual liberty,” in response to a post by White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller claiming that sanctuary cities are a criminal conspiracy.

After California Gov. Gavin Newsom posted about Trump taking control of the state’s National Guard and deploying it to Los Angeles last year, Zacharia criticized the Democratic governor and suggested that Trump should take further action.

“The federal government under @realDonaldTrump should take over all of California because clearly you can’t be trusted to do a single thing,” she posted. An archived version of one of the posts is available here. Posts removed from X can persist through third-party archives such as the Wayback Machine, which is how deleted remarks like these remain accessible andable after the fact.

Hartnett also wrote that Zacharia’s posts showed “deeply skeptical views about COVID, bordering on conspiracism.” In August, she reposted an article claiming that “8 in 10 women had a miscarriage after getting the COVID vaccine,” a statistic he described as being “wildly at odds with actual scientific data.” In 2022, using a now-deleted Twitter account, she repeatedly accused Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates of being “a eugenicist” who “was pushing for everyone to get a toxic jab.” Archived posts include this account and this post.

“Her tweets are a grab bag of right-wing talking points,” Hartnett continued. In September 2025, Zacharia accused “leftist transgender assailants” of being responsible for “at least a dozen” school shootings. Last month, she called Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, who was born and raised in the United States, “an indictment of our immigration system under Democrats.”

Last week, she described Chief Justice John Roberts as “not even that conservative” and said his opinion in the birthright citizenship case “should have gotten him a seat back at those lib-tables.” In a podcast interview last year, she also insisted that the abortion pill mifepristone was the same chemical used in Nazi Germany extermination camps. “It’s not,” Hartnett wrote.

Hartnett suggested that the views placed Zacharia “outside the political mainstream,” while potentially appealing to what remains of Trump’s passionate base. He also wrote that she has an “over-the-top admiration for” Trump, which the president appears to view as a major prerequisite for the position.