For deranged White House watchers like most of us in this community, it was good fun watching and rehashing newly minted press secretary Katie Zacharia’s ▶first press briefing. It was, by any measure, a humiliation of truly Spicer-esque proportions. She opened with an eight-minute-long, pre-written speech explaining her excitement to be joining the team “in the middle of the midterm blitz, with energy and excitement never seen before in the history of midterms, thanks to President Trump.” Of her new boss, she said: “He is an energetic president!” She then went on to call on three reporters for a total of six questions, including a series of getting-to-know-you softballs, a query about Kimberly Guilfoyle that she answered by reading a 21-word statement, and a question about intelligence-sharing with Ukraine on which she had no information whatsoever.
All told, she gave only one significant answer, a reply to Fox News’s Peter Doocy about how she sees her role. After a bunch of gibberish about “hoping to amplify, multiply, and expand upon President Trump’s incredible agenda,” she said: “he is his own best spokesperson and will absolutely be leading the way as — with that.” Three minutes later she ended the briefing because Trump was about to head to the presidential helicopter, saying: “we can ask him all of the questions out there.”
When I Slacked Greg this morning that I was going to be writing about Zacharia, he responded: “As an American and a journalist, I can’t help feeling that the selection of this clearly unqualified person for this job lands as a bit of an insult.” I get it. But I take the hiring as an acknowledgment that, in an era where Trump is constantly sharing his thoughts on Truth Social and in Oval Office scrums, the press secretary role and the daily briefing just aren’t very important. To me, that’s a hopeful sign.
When I worked in the White House press office, part of my job was to help the press secretary prep for each day’s briefing, and then to go out behind him, sit in the staff seats on the side of the room, and see how it went. I endured countless hours of Q&A, and I came away with the conviction that, even under a president and staff who actually take their jobs seriously, the daily briefing was no longer useful. When I left the job to become a journalist, one of the first pieces I wrote was an essay in The New Republic advocating for ending the practice altogether.
I stand by it: the briefing is a performance of transparency and accountability that usually delivers neither. In the Karoline Leavitt era, it was all about owning the libs. If Zacharia’s first go was any indication, the goal now is simply to make Trump feel happy about himself while he watches the feed upstairs. Either way, what does it matter what the person at the podium says, when the president is telling you himself several times an hour?
In August, Dan and Jon did a little ▶fantasy draft for who Trump might pick to replace Leavitt. Jon’s #2 pick was “no one … He’s the press secretary.” The problem with that, Dan said, was that he likes to watch the briefing. With the Zacharia pick, he gets the best of both worlds. So no, the daily sessions probably won’t go away — but my hope is that with Zacharia installed, the press, and the rest of us, can finally stop caring about them.
Only three more Friday shows before the midterms. Is that a lot or a little? Right now it’s feeling like a lot: I just want to know what happens already. Jon and Dan are in their usual spots today, and Dan will be talking to former Sen. Sherrod Brown about the race to reclaim his old seat in Ohio. Hopefully we’ll do some reaction to Zacharia’s best moments. Aside from that, here’s what we’re thinking for news blocks.
**Trump on tour.**The Donald Trump road show trundled on through three western states this week, allowing him to bask in the affection of red-state crowds and re-establish himself as the main character in the election. Yesterday, Trump hit Bullhead City, Arizona with nearly two hours of his usual nonsensical material. Attendees heard that “leakers should be shot” and that their state’s 2022 electionwas riggedagainst MAGA star Kari Lake. Later in the day in Montana, he brushed aside yesterday’sreport— from his own administration — showing inflation accelerating. “We don’t have inflation,” Trump▶told the crowd. “Tariffs don’t cause inflation. You know what they cause? Wealth. They cause wealth.” We’ll play the craziest sound from these events and react.**Grappling and grift.**Yesterday welearned from Axiosthat longtime Trump attorney Alina Habba complained to the president that her wealthy husband’s multimillion-dollar donation to the Kennedy Center never seemed to be deposited by its former leader, Trump buddy Ric Grennell (who denied the claims as “absurd” and a “lie.”) Politico has an exclusive this morning on thefeud betweenDeputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau and Special Envoy Paolo Zampolli over unspecified illegal conduct. And of course there’s more fromThe Wall Street Journalon now ex-ambassador to Greece, Kimberly Guilfoyle, who decorated her Athens residence with portraits of herself and traveled with a personal stylist. Late-stage Trumpism really is starting to look like late-stage Rome.**Backing down.**This morning, Trump completed the slow-motion walkback of Pete Hegseth’s promise to live-stream the execution of Nidal Malik Hasan. “Many very good and well meaning people would rather not watch him die, through streaming, or through any other visual device,” Trump wrote in aposton Truth Social. “He will die, as scheduled, by firing squad, but this event will not be streamed.” A win for sanity. Is it also a loss for Hegseth’s presidential ambitions?**The Susie Wiles speculation.**Will Trump enter his lame duck era with a new chief of staff?Playbook reportsthat the president has begun asking friends about possible replacements. The calls have picked up as his frustration with his sagging poll numbers has risen, the outlet says, adding that he’s floated Stephen Miller and Bill Pulte as options. Shiver. Wiles has been widely credited with bringing a degree of competency to the Trump circus. Is she getting set up to take the fall for a midterm defeat?
This week’s half-finished masterworks: the duel between Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, why cooling the sun’s radiation is an even trickier business than it sounds like, and how wedding videos are going blockbuster.
