White House spokesperson fired after four days, setting record for shortest tenure

White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia was abruptly fired just four days into the job.

Donald Trump told reporters at the White House on Friday (local time) as he was leaving for a campaign rally in Georgia ahead of a midterm election, Fox News reported.

Trump said he had told Zacharia that "maybe this isn't the right job for her" and that "she doesn't have to do this if she doesn't want to — think it over."

Asked whether those remarks amounted to a firing, Trump said, "No. I wish her a great life," adding that "she's been very harshly attacked by the press."

The White House officially confirmed her dismissal immediately after Trump's comments, however, indicating that he had in effect delivered the news himself.

A White House press secretary departing after just four days is virtually without precedent. Zacharia is set to go down as the shortest-serving press secretary in the office's history.

Zacharia was announced as press secretary on Oct. 9 and began work Monday, only to be immediately engulfed in allegations of résumé fraud and questions about her qualifications.

She had presented herself as a lawyer on television and elsewhere, but it emerged that she had failed the California bar exam after graduating from Pepperdine University School of Law in 2011.

At her first White House briefing on Tuesday, she took questions only from three conservative outlets before leaving after roughly 10 minutes, raising further doubts about her readiness for the role.

In a media interview on Friday, she recalled living in China from 2011 to 2016 and said "they don't even have proper bathrooms," drawing a rebuttal from China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Zacharia had previously served as a senior communications adviser at Trump Media & Technology Group, the company behind Truth Social, the social media platform Trump founded.

She was tapped by Trump after the position sat vacant for nearly two months following the resignation of her predecessor, Caroline Levitt, who stepped down in August after the birth of her second child.

When announcing the appointment, Trump described Zacharia as "a loyal and outstanding supporter from the outset, and an avid fan and member of MAGA — Make America Great Again."