New press secretary Katie Zacharia had a rough start at the White House this week as she landed in a small corner office while President Donald Trump’s enforcer kept the large office press secretaries traditionally use.
Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, is “the current occupant of the large office in the White House West Wing traditionally occupied by the press secretary,” CBS News reporter Jennifer Jacobs wrote on X Tuesday.
Zacharia “is in the small corner office in that suite of rooms,” Jacobs wrote. The arrangement added to a tough first day for Zacharia, who now shares that suite with an aide known for insulting reporters.
Press secretaries have traditionally worked out of one of the West Wing’s largest rooms, a space with a fireplace down the hall from the Oval Office, CBS News explained last year.
Former Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich used the office early in Trump’s second term, and Karoline Leavitt, then the press secretary, reclaimed it when he left, according to Jacobs. Leavitt left the job at the end of August, and Cheung moved in after her.
Trump refers to Cheung as “my sumo wrestler,” The New Yorker reported in 2024, citing a NOTUS newsletter.
Trump also calls Cheung “Luca Brasi,” the mob enforcer in “The Godfather,” according to “Regime Change,” a book by New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, HuffPost reported in June.
The book says Trump has praised Cheung as “a more violent version of” North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. Vanity Fair described Cheung in a 2025 profile as “the most aggressive of Trump’s press staffers.”
“You must be truly f---ing stupid if you think we’re not transparent,” Cheung told HuffPost reporter S.V. Date in a statement that year, Vanity Fair reported.
The news that Cheung would not vacate the office for Zacharia came after a rocky first press conference on Tuesday.
“Getting behind the podium is tough, but she got off on the wrong foot. She needs to get much better, fast, otherwise she’ll break Scaramucci’s record,” a White House official said after Zacharia’s first briefing Tuesday morning, according to MS NOW reporter Jake Traylor.
Anthony Scaramucci was removed as Trump’s communications director in 2017 after 11 days on the job.
“A tremendous start for the new White House @PressSec! She commanded the room and effectively reminded the American people of all the great work President Trump and his Administration has done thus far,” Cheung wrote on X about 20 minutes after Traylor’s post.
“I thought she was very good,” Trump told reporters outside the White House later Tuesday before leaving for Alaska.
“You said she’s an attorney. Where did she pass the bar exam? Which state?” a reporter asked.
“When I moved to China,” Zacharia replied from behind the president.
According to investigative reporter Judd Legum, “there is no evidence that Zacharia has ever been licensed to practice law.”