Donald Trump’s newly appointed White House press secretary is facing uncomfortable questions before she has even settled behind the briefing-room podium.
Katie Zacharia, the conservative commentator and Trump Media communications adviser selected to succeed Karoline Leavitt, has come under scrutiny after a collection of deleted social-media posts resurfaced.
The archived messages show Zacharia calling for the suspension of habeas corpus, suggesting the federal government should take over California, promoting a false claim about COVID vaccines and miscarriages, and encouraging Trump to seek another presidential term despite the Constitution’s two-election limit.
The posts were uncovered by The Bulwark, which examined Zacharia’s current account as well as an older Twitter account recovered through the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.
Some messages had disappeared only recently.
Others came from an account deleted years ago.
One of the most consequential posts came in June 2025.
White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller had accused sanctuary cities of engaging in a “criminal conspiracy” against federal immigration law.
Zacharia replied with two words:
“Suspend habeas corpus.”
That is not a minor constitutional power.
Habeas corpus allows detained people to challenge the legality of their imprisonment before a court.
The Constitution says the privilege may be suspended only in cases of “Rebellion or Invasion” when public safety requires it.
Zacharia did not spell out how she believed those constitutional conditions had been met.
Her old post nevertheless takes on greater significance now that she will serve as one of the most prominent public defenders of the federal government.
Another deleted message targeted California.
Responding to Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom during a dispute over federal intervention in Los Angeles, Zacharia wrote that the Trump administration should “take over all of California” because Newsom could not be trusted to govern it.
The post offered no constitutional mechanism for such a takeover.
Newsom’s office seized on the resurfaced comment after Zacharia’s appointment, calling it “alarming” and questioning why the post had later disappeared.
Her archived social-media history also includes medical misinformation.
In August, Zacharia shared an article claiming that “8 in 10 women had a miscarriage after getting the COVID vaccine.”
That claim is false.
Large studies involving more than a million pregnancies have not found an increased miscarriage risk associated with COVID vaccination.
CDC guidance says studies have found no increased risk of miscarriage, stillbirth, premature delivery or birth defects from vaccination during pregnancy.
Zacharia had expressed similar skepticism before.
According to The Bulwark, posts from her older account described Bill Gates as a “eugenicist” and accused him of pushing a “toxic jab.”
Her comments went well beyond vaccines.
In another post, Zacharia attributed “at least a dozen” school shootings to “leftist transgender assailants.”
The claim was presented without evidence establishing such a pattern.
She has also repeatedly encouraged Trump to seek another term in 2028.
That political enthusiasm runs directly into the text of the 22nd Amendment.
The Constitution says that no person may be elected president more than twice.
Trump has already been elected twice — in 2016 and 2024.
That does not prevent Trump or his supporters from discussing hypothetical scenarios.
But a conventional third election victory would be barred by the amendment unless the Constitution itself were changed.
Zacharia has nevertheless repeatedly promoted the idea of Trump running again, according to the archived posts.
The resurfaced material creates an unusual opening challenge for someone whose central job will be credibility.
The White House press secretary speaks on behalf of the president and fields questions on everything from military action and constitutional law to public health and elections.
Zacharia may now have to answer questions about her own past statements on all four.
Trump appeared unconcerned.
When announcing her appointment Friday, he praised Zacharia as a loyal supporter who had backed him from the beginning.
He called her “brilliant” and a devoted member of the MAGA movement.
Zacharia, 41, is an attorney and mother of four.
She earned undergraduate and law degrees from Pepperdine University and previously appeared frequently on Fox News and Newsmax.
Earlier in Trump’s second administration, she briefly worked as a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security under Kristi Noem.
Most recently, she served as a senior communications adviser at Trump Media & Technology Group, the company behind Truth Social.
She will replace Karoline Leavitt, who left the White House in August after the birth of her second child.
Leavitt is scheduled to begin work as a Fox News contributor in November.
Zacharia’s appointment already signaled that Trump wanted another aggressive defender behind the podium.
Her past public comments show a communicator closely aligned with Trump’s political worldview rather than a conventional institutional spokesperson.
Last month, she even wrote that Trump did not need a spokesperson because he was “his own best Press Secretary.”
That remark now carries an obvious irony.
Zacharia has become his spokesperson.
And before she has held her first full White House briefing, journalists already have an extensive archive of statements to ask her about.
One concerns a constitutional protection against unlawful detention.
Another advocates extraordinary federal power over a state.
Another promotes inaccurate vaccine information.
Still others endorse a third Trump presidency that the 22nd Amendment does not permit through another ordinary election.
The White House had not responded to requests for comment about the resurfaced posts when the reports were published.
There is also an important distinction in describing what happened to Zacharia’s online history.
The posts were deleted.
That is established.
But unless Zacharia explains why she removed them, it is impossible to know whether she was deliberately trying to conceal them in preparation for a White House job or simply cleaning up older accounts for another reason.
What cannot be erased as easily is the archive.
Screenshots remain.
The Wayback Machine remains.
And the positions Zacharia once expressed are now likely to follow her into one of the most scrutinized jobs in Washington.
For a press secretary, that could turn her first few briefings into something more than a defense of Donald Trump.
She may have to start by defending herself.
