Even by Trump administration standards, Katie Zacharia flamed out fast.

Exactly one week after President Donald Trump announced that the self-described lawyer and former fitness marketer would take over the White House briefing pulpit from Karoline Leavitt, she was out of the job, having never proven herself comfortable under the unblinking eye of a national news camera.

Trump appeared to want to break the news gently, telling a gaggle of reporters on Friday that he didn’t think the job would make her happy, and she was “better off being happy.” The press, he said, had been “so nasty to her.”

Zacharia’s first briefing on Tuesday was awkward, at best. She read slowly and haltingly from a written statement before calling on three right-wing outlets, whose reporters asked no particularly tough questions. She smiled through obvious discomfort.

The whole thing was over in less than 15 minutes. Zacharia was not new to the spotlight, having served as a Newsmax commentator, but she showed none of the smooth self-assuredness of her predecessor.

Publicly, the Trump administration defended her, with Communications Director Steven Cheung putting out a statement that labeled Zacharia “whip smart” and “uniquely qualified.”

But privately, those inside the administration seemed to acknowledge it had been a rocky debut. A few anonymous officials told The Independent they didn’t understand why she couldn’t have taken more time to prepare, and one called the spectacle “brutal.” MS NOW aired a quote from another anonymous official who said Zacharia “got off on the wrong foot.”

“She needs to get much better fast, otherwise she’ll break Scaramucci’s record,” the person said.

(Anthony Scaramucci, of course, was the Trump 1.0 communications director who lasted a mere 11 days — a tenure that quickly became its own unit of time among the terminally online.)

Humorist Alexandra Petri attempted to explain her performance with an article entitled, “Hi, I’m Your New Press Secretary, And It’s My First Time Reading Words Out Loud.”

Then came the question of her credentials: Trump described her as an “attorney,” and Zacharia advertised herself as a “lawyer” on social media.

But when independent journalist Judd Legum searched high and low for any record that she passed a bar exam, which is required to practice law, he found none. When reporters followed up to ask which state bar she had passed, a roaring helicopter drowned out the question, leading her to provide a nonsensical answer: “When I moved to China.” She later explained that she “assumed” the reporter had asked where she went after law school.

One day in, and Zacharia had already lost control of the narrative. She offered no clarifying statements, leaving the national media to gawk and delve into a tedious discussion of the difference between “lawyer” and “attorney.”

Over the following days, Zacharia attempted a clean-up job.

It did not go well.

First, she sat down with hard-right pundit and conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec for a pre-taped interview, released Thursday, where she gave a detailed rundown of her personal life and the circumstances that led her to press pause on her efforts to pass the California bar exam, admitting she had failed the first time. As for the briefing, she said she did not feel adequately prepared.

Then, she turned to Fox News — normally a safe space for White House officials. But Sean Hannity appeared skeptical from the jump, confronting her with the fact that her first briefing had been widely panned.

Zacharia gave several winding responses about her short lead time, ultimately failing to address Hannity’s question about why she wanted to be called a “lawyer” even though she could not legally practice law.

In conclusion, she delivered an enormous word salad: “What I would say is I would absolutely be very well prepared on the briefing, Sean, and I would love, and I do love questions, and I would love to build a relationship with all the members of the press corps so there is a substantive component to us having an ability to interact, and I will be very prepared, Sean, and I will step up to the duty of President Trump has asked me to as press secretary.”

A Friday morning appearance on “Fox & Friends” went only marginally better.

Asked whether Trump had confidence in her ability to do the job, Zacharia demurred.

“I’m standing here, and I was able to travel with him through all of the midterm convention — excuse me, the midterm rallies — and I hope to be able to build the trust and confidence of everyone around me,” she said.

Where she needed to be brief, sharp, and forward-looking, she was long-winded, unwieldy and constantly on the back foot.

CNN’s Kaitlin Collins reported that Trump was “embarrassed” by the negative attention Zacharia’s first briefing received, and when she could not clean up the mess on Hannity’s program, “Trump said he knew she needed to go.” According to Collins, he was frustrated by how long it took to find a replacement for Leavitt and wanted more people defending him on national TV.

Even so, the president told Fox News on Friday that he is in no particular hurry to name a replacement for Zacharia.

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