Exactly one week after he announced he was hiring conservative TV commentator Katie Zacharia as his next White House press secretary, President Donald Trump has fired her after her dismal performance at her first briefing was followed by days of questions over whether she’d lied about being licensed to practice law.

A White House official confirmed that she’d been sacked just moments after Trump departed the White House for a rally in Georgia on the way to a weekend at his Mar-a-Lago home.

During a question-and-answer session with reporters, the president complained that his novice spokesperson had been treated “very, very badly, very unfairly” by news outlets — including a tough grilling by Fox News host Sean Hannity last night — and said he’d discussed whether Zacharia wanted to remain under such a tough media microscope.

“I said to Katie just two minutes ago, I said, Katie, you know, you don’t have to do this … the news has been so nasty to her. I’ve never seen anything like it. And I said, I said to her honestly, if I were you, I’d reconsider. You think about it, but I wouldn’t reconsider. She’s got a beautiful husband and family … maybe it’s not for her.” he said.

Asked what he wanted Zacharia to do going forward, he replied: “I just want her to be happy.”

And when pressed further on whether he wants her to remain in the job she started on Monday, he told reporters he would speak with her when he returns to Washington and stressed that he likes her “a lot.”

“I want her to have a good life. I don’t want to have a life like she’s led in the last three days. She is being brutalized by the media. I think very unfairly, but she’s been brutalized by the media,” he said. “When I get back, we’re going to talk because I don’t think that Katie could be made to suffer like she’s suffering.”

The president’s suggestion that Zacharia would not continue as his top spokesperson followed a disastrous week for the conservative activist, who first attracted Trump’s attention through ubiquitous appearances on Fox News, Newsmax and other right-wing networks — often timed to when she believed he would be watching.

She officially started work on Monday, three days after he announced her hiring in a Truth Social post. She unexpectedly held her first press briefing a day later and left reporters stunned after her initial appearance in the White House briefing room lasted just 14 minutes.

The neophyte spokesperson spent eight minutes of that reading — haltingly — from a scripted statement before she took softball questions from three conservative-leaning outlets and made a hasty exit after confusing the president with her husband and announcing the firing of Trump’s U.S. ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle.

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