China has invited Katie Zacharia, a former White House press secretary who claimed in 2016 during a discussion of China's rise that China lacked "decent toilets," to visit China again. In response, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said on October 18, 2026 that she is welcome to come to China more often to look around.
On October 12, CNN's KFile reported that Zakaria had repeatedly made baseless pedophilia accusations against Democrats on social media in the past and had reposted content containing the "Pizzagate" conspiracy theory; some of the posts have already been deleted.
On October 12, Zakaria's first press conference lasted about 14 minutes and took questions from only 3 reporters. During it, she said "my president" and then corrected it to "my husband," while relying heavily on her prepared script.
On October 12, Zakaria announced at his first press conference that the White House had asked U.S. Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle to resign; this came after reports of alleged misconduct on her part, which the State Department Inspector General is reportedly investigating.
On October 12, Trump was asked in which state Zakaria had passed the bar exam; she answered "when I moved to China." She once worked at a law firm in Beijing and speaks basic Chinese.
The UK's Daily Mail, citing anonymous sources, reported that Zakaria was not chief of staff Wiles' first choice, and that the appointment shows disagreement between the two; the Daily Beast, citing sources, reported that Wiles was aware of and supported it, while Zakaria denied it.
On October 9, Trump announced on Truth Social the appointment of former Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Katie Zakaria as White House press secretary, succeeding Leavitt, who left in August.
According to The Wall Street Journal, prediction market Kalshi is investigating several bets placed before the appointment announcement that correctly picked Zakaria; outside observers had previously given her roughly a 1% probability, and no connection between her and the bets was found.