Did Trump’s New Press Secretary Lie About Being a Lawyer?

The incoming White House press secretary has made a name for herself as an on-air legal expert, claiming she’s an attorney. But is she?

Katie Zacharia is not actually licensed to practice law anywhere in the country, according to a report published Tuesday by Popular Info’s Judd Legum.

The 42-year-old obtained her J.D. from Pepperdine Caruso Law in 2011, according to her LinkedIn profile. Her work history also includes a gig as “general counsel” for a Ric Grenell–operated nonprofit based in California, but Legum found she held no credentials to practice law there.

Zacharia is not listed as a member of the bar in Texas or Washington, D.C., either, despite evidence that she also worked there in a legal capacity.

In fact, after analyzing state bar association databases from all 50 states and Washington, Legum found that Zacharia never actually passed the qualifying legal exam anywhere.

In an emailed response about Zacharia’s dubious résumé, the White House referred Legum to Donald Trump’s Friday Truth Social post, in which he declared Zacharia’s appointment under the pretext that she is a “distinguished Graduate of Pepperdine University, and the Pepperdine Caruso School of Law, an attorney, and a frequent Commentator on outlets, including Fox News and Newsmax.”

The White House did not offer any other supporting evidence for Zacharia’s work history.

Addressing reporters alongside Trump on Tuesday, Zacharia claimed she passed the bar when she “moved to China.” Zacharia’s LinkedIn states she lived in China from 2011 to 2013 while working as a law associate and a communications manager for an international children’s rights group. There is no indication she took or passed any U.S. bar exam while in China.

She also couldn’t have practiced law in China because foreigners are forbidden to do so. Only Chinese nationals (with some exceptions in Hong Kong and Taiwan) are allowed to take the country’s bar exam and practice Chinese law.

That’s not her only fudged truth. Zacharia has previously claimed that the abortion pill mifepristone came straight from Nazi Germany, and used her Truth Social account to elevate the Pizzagate conspiracy, which baselessly accused Hillary Clinton and other prominent Democrats of participating in a child sex-trafficking ring in the basement of a Washington pizzeria named Comet Ping Pong. (In 2016, the unfounded Pizzagate murmurs inspired an armed gunman to drive up from North Carolina and open fire inside the restaurant, only to discover the facility has no basement and was not holding children captive.)

This story has been updated.

Texas Attorney General and Senate candidate Ken Paxton spent New Year’s Eve 2024 partying in Dubai with his mistress and two U.S. fugitives indicted on health care fraud charges.

In a video obtained by The Wall Street Journal, Paxton can be seen surveying the fireworks over the Dubai skyline next to his girlfriend Tracy Duhon. Indicted fugitives Sameer Suhail and Anosh Ahmed, who donated to Paxton’s campaign, were also present. Suhail and Ahmed were federally indicted in 2024 on charges of embezzling $15 million from the Illinois hospital where Ahmed was chief financial officer. Ahmed was later charged with another even grander scheme in which he allegedly sold $195 million worth of faulty Covid-19 tests to the government.

Ahmed donated $190,000 to Paxton’s campaign, including $25,000 just a few days after his indictment. Both men spent significant time outside of the U.S. after their indictments, making time to link with Paxton in Dubai before Ahmed went to Serbia, where he was arrested. Suhail was arrested at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. Both are back in U.S. custody now.

“Every time you think Ken Paxton couldn’t get worse, he finds a way to prove you wrong,” the Democratic Senate Majority PAC wrote on X. “Turns out, Paxton partied in Dubai with two fugitives from U.S. justice and a woman who wasn’t his wife.”

So why did the Texas attorney general spend New Year’s Eve in Dubai with his mistress and two indicted men, one of whom donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to his election efforts? His campaign didn’t have a solid answer.

“Like President Trump, Ken Paxton has been politically persecuted for years, and every time, voters have seen through it and sent him back to office because they know he has always fought for Texas,” the Paxton campaign told WSJ.

This is just the latest development in one of the most scandal-ridden Senate campaigns in recent history. And yet even through his own grand jury indictment, a public affair and divorce, and multiple controversial leaks in which he made disparaging remarks about the president, Paxton still remains neck and neck with his Democratic opponent James Talarico.

Kimberly Guilfoyle has officially resigned as U.S. ambassador to Greece.

She made the announcement Tuesday in a statement on Twitter, thanking Donald Trump for the opportunity and listing what she accomplished during her short tenure. She also took aim at the reports of corruption that led to her downfall.

“I also want to address the recent allegations against me. These allegations are false, and I intend to vigorously defend my name, my reputation, and my integrity. I have dedicated my professional life to fighting for justice, standing up for what is right, and defending the values that make America exceptional. I will not allow false accusations to define my decades of public service,” she wrote.

Newly-minted Press Secretary Katie Zacharia initially dropped the bomb on Guilfoyle earlier Tuesday. During her first White House press briefing, Zacharia was asked whether President Donald Trump planned to remove his ambassador to Greece following allegations that she engaged in illegal conduct.

Zacharia revealed that the ouster was already underway.

“We have asked Ambassador Guilfoyle to resign,” Zacharia said. “She has been a wonderful asset to the team, and we wish her well.”

In a series of reports, Guilfoyle has been accused of threatening a host country official and offering access to Trump administration officials in return for the quiet payment of a $100,000 credit card bill. She was also caught bragging about her close ties to two Greek tycoons who she said were bankrolling her travels, as she begged to get into a dinner with Eric Trump.

The State Department’s inspector general is looking into the allegations, a U.S. official told the Associated Press Monday, but could not say whether a formal investigation had been launched.

While taking questions from reporters outside of the White House Monday evening, Trump was asked whether he was considering firing Guilfoyle, the ex-fiancé of his son Donald Trump Jr.

“Well, we’re looking at it. Yeah, we’re not happy,” he said bluntly.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has also become increasingly frustrated as the reports about Guilfoyle’s alleged misconduct multiplied, another U.S. official told the AP. Rubio was particularly pissed off after he arrived in Greece last week entirely unaware of the shitstorm that was about to rain down on America’s ambassador there.

This story has been updated.

President Donald Trump mocked a protester as they were being physically attacked by his rallygoers.

At a rally in Youngstown, Ohio, Monday, Trump’s address was interrupted by a fight in the stands. A video of the incident showed a bald man in a T-shirt punching a woman in the face, pulling her hair, and hitting her repeatedly.

“Paid protester,” the president said flatly, as the angry crowd chanted, “USA! USA! USA!”

Multiple security officers approached and roughly dragged the woman away, appearing to leave the man who attacked her in his seat.

“He’s a paid protester, they’re all paid. They get paid by the lefties in order to destroy our country. They’re scum. But he’s going back home to mom. He’s going back home to mom,” Trump said. It’s not clear whether he was referring to the protester as “he” to be derisive or because he genuinely could not see.

“Look at him. Look at him, terrible. Don’t we love law enforcement? Oh, he’s gotta go on a diet. He’s a fat guy. Wow. Wow,” Trump said, the crowd bursting into cheers. “Gotta go on a diet fast, we all do.”

The crowd continued to chant: “USA! USA! USA!”

Trump’s unwillingness to condemn his supporters’ violence (and in many cases, his decision to encourage it) is obviously nothing new. But the failure to address violence that unfolds before his own eyes is still shameful behavior from any leader—let alone the president of the United States.

On the campaign trail in Ohio, President Donald Trump decided that complimenting Senator Jon Husted’s posterior was a winning strategy.

“I don’t do this with men very often. I started examining his body. And I looked and I watched up and down. I watched his ass and I looked at the whole. And then I looked at his hands. Look at his hands, he’s got these, like, claws. And I got it. You are a great athlete. I didn’t know that because he doesn’t talk about that. Congratulations, now they finally know. That was very good,” Trump said.

Trump didn’t stop at Husted’s derrière. He also praised the senator’s jawline, adding, “[W]hy was he such a good footballer? Look at the jawline, he’s tough as hell.”

It’s doubtful that Husted will appreciate the comments, because the voters in Ohio don’t rank his posterior as one of their top issues. Husted is in a tight race with Democratic opponent and former three-term Senator Sherrod Brown, with the latest polls showing the two in a dead heat. The fact that Trump is even campaigning for Husted is a huge crack in the GOP’s armor, as Trump won the state in the last three presidential elections.

Based on the country’s current anti-Trump sentiment from the Iran war, whimsical tariffs, and abysmal economy resulting from both, Democrats could retake both houses of Congress and throw Husted out on his apparently shapely behind in November. Why Trump thinks that talking up the incumbent senator’s keister is the key to victory is anybody’s guess, although senility and cognitive decline come to mind. Rather than give Husted a slap on the rear, the president’s comments are more likely to make both of them the butt of many jokes.