Pakistan

Islamabad, October 16, 2026. Business Recorder, which picked up a Reuters dispatch, and Geo News are treating the dismissal of Katie Zacharia as an episode of American domestic politics with electoral implications. According to two White House officials cited on Friday, the spokesperson was "let go" and "transitioning out" of her position, after days of questions about her legal credentials and criticism of her first press briefing.

Business Recorder highlights the calendar: this departure deprives Donald Trump of a "key public messenger" just over two weeks before the November midterm elections, a period when the president wants to tout his record and help Republicans keep Congress. The newspaper recalls that Ms. Zacharia had taken up her duties on Monday, October 12, succeeding Karoline Leavitt, and held her first press briefing on Tuesday, October 13.

Geo News details this 14-minute briefing. Citing the Associated Press, the site writes that the 41-year-old woman mainly read prepared statements on immigration, customs duties, and the economy, and then only answered questions from three right-leaning media outlets: Breitbart News, Fox News, and the Daily Mail. She ended the briefing by citing the president's departure. Geo adds that she was quickly hired, with other candidates being rejected due to their past critical comments about Trump, and that she had little experience with press briefings.

The second thread is that of her law degree. On Wednesday, October 14, she claimed by email to have practiced international transaction law "with all the appropriate credentials". On Thursday, October 15, questioned by Sean Hannity on Fox News, she acknowledged that she had not passed the bar exam and had not retaken it; Business Recorder specifies that she graduated from Pepperdine University in 2011. Geo mentions a failure on the California bar exam and a lack of proof of admission to the bar, including in China.

Trump, for his part, said he had advised her to "reconsider", and, according to Geo, "Maybe it's not for her", while judging that the press had treated her "very unfairly". He had initially stated: "I thought she was very good". Neither of the two media outlets details the remarks about China or the Ukrainian issue mentioned elsewhere.