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Following White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia’s first appearance before the media on Tuesday, numerous aspects of her background have come to light — including her staunch anti-abortion views and that she may have lied about her résumé.
Zacharia has claimed she is a lawyer, noting that she graduated from law school at Pepperdine University. However, no record of her passing a bar exam in any state exists, which is generally a requirement before a person can practice law. In states without that requirement, would-be lawyers usually have to submit an application to the state’s bar association, but there is no record of her applying in those jurisdictions either.
Asked by reporters this week where she passed the bar exam, Zacharia responded, “When I moved to China.” But critics have pointed out that a person cannot take a state bar exam while outside of the U.S.
White House press secretaries are not required to have an educational degree, let alone be a lawyer. However, the fact that Zacharia has possibly misled others about her personal history raises the question of whether she can be forthright or honest in her new role.
Perhaps more concerning are Zacharia’s views on reproductive rights. From November 2023 to February 2026, she served on the board of advisors for an organization called “White Rose Resistance,” an anti-abortion group that stole its name from a Nazi Germany-era resistance group that had nothing to do with the issue.
The contemporary White Rose Resistance has pushed for charging people with murder if they receive an abortion or help to facilitate one. On the organization’s FAQ page, the group downplays the possibility of a death penalty sentence for those found “guilty” of having an abortion while also not outright denying that it could happen.
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After leaving the organization, Zacharia has pushed an anti-abortion agenda through the use of disinformation. In an interview from October 2026, she pointedly stated that “the abortion pill has the same chemicals that they used…in camps in Nazi Germany” — a verifiably false claim.
The decision to hire Zacharia as the Trump administration’s new press secretary could indicate that the White House may focus on abortion following the upcoming midterm elections. Indeed, according to a report from The Washington Sun, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has been instructed to move more slowly on abortion-related cases until after November, picking up attacks on abortion rights and access once the elections are over.
Abortion rights proponents have decried the appointment of Zacharia.
“Donald Trump is handing the anti-abortion disinformation movement one of the biggest megaphones in government,” Reproductive Freedom for All President and CEO Mini Timmaraju said in a statement. “Katie Zacharia is the latest anti-abortion extremist Trump has installed in his administration. We must put a check on their fringe agenda this November and block their plan to ban abortion after the midterms.”
On Tuesday, Zacharia stumbled at many moments during her first appearance as press secretary, and only took three questions from reporters (from Trump-friendly news outlets) after giving her initial remarks. Sources close to the White House said it was a rough start for her.
“You either got it or don’t. And she don’t got it,” one source connected to the administration told Politico.
“She needs to get much better, fast. Otherwise, she’ll break Scaramucci’s record,” a White House official said to MS NOW, referring to former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci, who only served for 11 days in Trump’s first term.
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