More than two weeks before the midterms, the White House still doesn't have a permanent spokesperson at the podium — and the search for one has become its own small Washington drama.

Katie Zacharia, who took over as press secretary after Karoline Leavitt's August departure, left the job just five days after starting it, according to CNBC's reporting — the shortest tenure of any White House press secretary in U.S. history. She faced widespread criticism over her performance almost immediately and came under mounting scrutiny over her legal background. Trump has said he urged her to reconsider before she stepped away.

Leavitt pulled back in

With no permanent replacement named, Trump has turned to Leavitt — who left in August citing a desire to spend more time with her two young children — to help vet candidates for her old job. In a Fox News interview, Leavitt said flatly that the job "was not for" Zacharia and that whoever takes it next needs to be tough enough to handle the briefing room.

NO PERMANENT PICK EXPECTED BEFORE THE MIDTERMS

No permanent successor has been officially announced as of this week. A person familiar with the search told reporters not to expect a new name before Election Day, and a fact-check by Meaww found that social-media chatter naming principal deputy press secretary Anna Kelly as the pick has not been confirmed by the White House.

The vacancy leaves Trump without a consistent on-camera voice defending his agenda in the campaign's closing stretch, with Republicans defending narrow majorities in both the House and Senate. The revolving door at the podium has become a running theme of Trump's second term — Leavitt herself served only about seven months before leaving. Whether her eventual successor lasts longer than five days may say as much about the pressures of the job this cycle as it does about any one pick.