Katie Zacharia's run as White House press secretary is over after just five days. Multiple outlets, including ABC News and NPR, reported Friday that Zacharia is "transitioning out" of the role, with a senior administration official confirming the departure after a widely panned first briefing and mounting questions about her legal credentials.

Zacharia held her first press briefing in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room on October 13 — and within days, the fallout from that appearance had effectively ended her tenure. According to ABC News, two sources said she is moving into a different, unannounced role within the administration rather than leaving government altogether.

"Maybe it's not for her"

President Trump, asked about Zacharia's future earlier in the week, said he had urged her to "reconsider" the position and conceded, "Maybe it's not for her." The remark, first reported by The Washington Post, was widely read in Washington as the president signaling the end was near even before the White House confirmed it.

FIVE DAYS, ONE BRIEFING, AND OUT

Zacharia's brief tenure was shadowed almost from the start by scrutiny over her professional background, after reports surfaced that she had described herself as a lawyer for years despite never having passed the bar exam. That revelation compounded criticism of her performance at the podium and left her standing with both reporters and the West Wing badly damaged.

She is the latest in a string of press secretaries and spokespeople to cycle through the administration's communications operation, a pattern CNBC noted has drawn its own round of commentary from political observers about turnover inside the West Wing press shop. The White House has not named a permanent successor, though the briefing room podium is expected to be staffed on an interim basis while a replacement is identified.

The abrupt exit also revives questions about how the administration vets its communications hires. Zacharia had been elevated to the podium role shortly before taking her first briefing, and allies of the ousted press secretary have suggested she was given the job with little preparation time and minimal support once the credentials questions broke. Critics, meanwhile, say the episode reflects a pattern of rushed staffing decisions inside a press operation that has churned through multiple occupants of the podium already this term.

Zacharia has not commented publicly since reports of her removal first surfaced, and it remains unclear whether she will make any on-camera appearance to address her departure before transitioning to her next role. Reporters who cover the White House beat said they expect the administration to name an interim briefer within days, given the pressure to keep daily communications operations running smoothly through a busy news cycle.