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(https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world/us_and_canada) US & Canada           Commentator Katie Zacharia picked as new White House press secretary      (Woman with long blonde hair and pink lipstick and black turtleneck)    Image source,  Getty Images      By Sareen Habeshian  and Bernd Debusmann ,  White House reporter     Published 9 October 2026           Donald Trump has chosen conservative commentator Katie Zacharia to be the next White House press secretary.  Zacharia, who currently works for Trump Media & Technology Group, will become the US president's sixth chief spokesperson across his two administrations. She previously had a brief stint as a spokeswoman at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Trump called Zacharia "loyal" and "a devoted fan and member of MAGA" in a social media post on Friday, referring to his Make America Great Again movement, adding that she had "an unblemished record of support". Former White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who left the White House in August, has reportedly taken a job with Fox News. "She was previously involved in my Campaigns, assisting in key Swing States, where we won 7 out of 7," Trump wrote on Truth Social of Zacharia. "I am confident that Katie will deliver strong results for our Country as the next White House Press Secretary, as she has the respect of, and will work fantastically with, the Media, the American People, and my Administration."          To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. This video can not be played       Figure caption,  Watch: New press secretary is going to be 'terrific', says Trump       Zacharia thanked him in a post on X, writing: "Serving President Trump and the American people at this critical 250-year mark is the honor of a lifetime." She said Trump had "shown America that we can be great again, and he works to effectuate that greatness every single day".  She said she looked forward "to working with the White House press corps, and with reporters across the country, to get that record out".  The 42-year-old political strategist is a frequent fixture on conservative Newsmax and Fox News, and has been active in Republican politics for most of her adult life, having worked as an intern for the Republican National Committee and for the White House Office of Political Affairs during the Bush administration in 2006. Since June, she has been a senior communications adviser for Trump's media company and Truth Social platform, according to her LinkedIn profile. She worked in Homeland Security from February to March this year. While she was only briefly in government at DHS - which the mother of four later said she left because of the strain of travel between California and Washington on her family - she has long been a ferocious defender of President Trump and his administration's policies. In a June (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-c3a45322-cba2-468a-931c-24ec24b74a38) interview with the BBC , for example, she dismissed criticism of Trump's controversial use of the White House to host a televised UFC fight, saying the principles of the UFC "are the kind of principles that founded our Constitutional Republic". "It's about not giving up the fight until the bitter end," she said. "I think there's no better summation of the American ethos than a good UFC fight." Earlier this year, Zacharia wrote an op-ed in the New York Post about an incident in which she was asked to stop wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat to her local gym. "I responded that I would never take my Trump hat off to appease the left," she wrote. "This is raw, unfiltered intolerance. Freedom of speech doesn't evaporate at the gym door." Justin Buchler, a political science professor at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, told the BBC that Trump's appointments during his second term have been "based on personal affiliation and loyalty".  "He values loyalty first and foremost," Buchler told the BBC.  A lawyer educated at Pepperdine University in California, Zacharia also served as general counsel for Fix California, a conservative non-profit started by Trump ally - and current Special Presidential Envoy for Special Missions - Ric Grenell. In 2011, she spent nearly two years clerking at a law firm in Beijing, China.     (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvglzrvyrz3o) Trump says White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt to leave post       Published 12 August             The complex job of press secretary goes beyond the briefing room podium to include managing contentious relationships with the press, coordinating with other parts of the White House, and providing media advice to the president. The secretary also oversees an office that receives a significant amount of inquiries and requests on a daily basis. Yanna Krupnikov, a political scientist and professor of communication and media at the University of Michigan, said the selection of Zacharia "speaks to a blurring of the lines between different media types".  Politicians nowadays need to communicate not only to various news outlets but with people in a social media context, she said. "I think the goal is not as much speaking to the media and journalists, but making sure that particular, very specific sound-bytes and messages get to ordinary people," Krupnikov told the BBC. When Leavitt left the role, Trump called her one of his "most trusted aides", which sets a high bar for her replacement. Leavitt left because she said she wanted to spend more time with her family.      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