Katie Zacharia admits failing bar exam after Trump calls her an Attorney
WASHINGTON,DC: White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia has acknowledged that she never qualified through a US bar examination, addressing questions about her legal credentials after President Donald Trump introduced her as an attorney.
In an interview with conservative commentator Jack Posobiec on Thursday, October 15, she discussed her unsuccessful attempt to pass the California bar exam and explained why she did not consider the result a major setback at the time.
Katie Zacharia on failing the bar exam: "We just said, 'I'll take the bar and see what happens.' The results are somewhat inconsequential because I knew I wouldn't need the bar in China." (She spent years lying that she's an attorney!) https://t.co/Z9i763NCW0
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 15, 2026
Katie Zacharia admits she did not clear bar exam
Zacharia told Posobiec that she attempted California’s bar exam after graduating from Pepperdine University’s law school in 2011 but did not pass.
She said the exam coincided with preparations for her wedding and plans to relocate to China for her husband’s job.
At the time, she viewed the test as a low-stakes attempt rather than a necessary step in her career.
“We just said, ‘I’ll take the bar and see what happens,’” she recalled, explaining that she expected to work in China and did not believe she would need a US bar qualification for her work there.
“The results are somewhat inconsequential because I knew I wouldn’t need the bar in China,” she said.
Zacharia pushed back against suggestions that she had misrepresented herself as a licensed attorney, saying she had been careful about how she described her qualifications.
“I was very careful how I executed this. I never came across as someone who was an attorney at law,” she said.
The questions gained fresh attention earlier this week when reporters asked where she had passed the bar exam.
Zacharia replied, “When I moved to China”, prompting further scrutiny of her legal credentials.
Zacharia: "A lot of the misinformation, miscommunication is around the fact that I labeled myself a lawyer. I consulted for a long time many people in the field -- 'Is it ok if I label myself a lawyer?' -- and they said, 'Absolutely. You can call yourself a lawyer. You have a JD' ... I was very careful how I executed this."
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 15, 2026
Katie opens up on first briefing gaffe
During the interview, Zacharia also discussed her first White House press briefing, which took place on Tuesday, October 13.
lol -- Katie Zacharia suggests her first briefing was a disaster because it was in the morning and the day before was a holiday "Typically, briefs are in the afternoon where the press secretary has ample time to be briefed. This was a very different intake. And the briefing materials got to me evening on Monday because it was a holiday ... "
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 15, 2026
She pointed to the unusual timing and the short preparation window as factors that made the session different from the routine she expected.
“Typically, briefs are in the afternoon where the press secretary has ample time to be briefed,” she said, explaining that the materials for her appearance reached her on Monday evening because the preceding day was a holiday.
White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia SHUTS DOWN rumors that she LOBBIED President Trump for the job after Karoline Leavitt left the administration. “I've been wanting this job since I met him, and I wanted the job in 2016, but I was having a bunch of kids.” “Originally I was getting a many, many inquiries when Karoline Levitt left. Do you want to put your name forward? Journalists reaching out, reporters reaching out. Do you want to put your name forward for this role? And I said, absolutely NOT. I am NOT lobbying for this job. I do not want my name anywhere near a journal or any kind of news outlet. I just don't want any press on this.” “Why? Because my philosophy is I'm on TV enough where if he sees me and he likes me, then I will be recruited for the job. I do not believe that lobbying for that job would have been successful. And I wanted to work for it. I wanted to audition for it. I think that's a much better way of encapsulating it.” "I tracked every news hit to be in accordance with what policies he was pushing forward, particularly on Truth Social since I was the senior communications advisor for Trump Media and Technology Group and Truth Social, where I would track what's important to President Trump. And I'm going to go on the news and talk about it.”
— RedWave Press (@RedWavePress) October 15, 2026
Katie Zacharia also said she was “absolutely not” lobbying for the White House press secretary role after Karoline Leavitt left the administration.
“I've been wanting this job since I met him,” she said, adding that she believed Trump would recruit her if he saw her on television and liked her performance.
