White House press secretary Katie Zacharia spent part of a decade-long gap in her résumé selling nutrition shakes for a fitness company that claims to have no record of her.
The newly installed press secretary's LinkedIn shows a gap in employment between 2013 and late 2023, but WIRED reported that a deleted version of her profile, found in a leak database compiled by the open-source intelligence firm District 4 Labs, listed two Beachbody email addresses as contact points.
She told WIRED the fitness company ran a multilevel marketing operation she now describes as “sort of a pyramid scheme.”
Beachbody told WIRED it had no record of her working there, and Zacharia confirmed in a phone call that she was never an employee.
Instead, she said, a friend brought her in as an affiliate marketer after she returned from China in 2013, and she promoted Beachbody’s Shakeology, a “superfood nutrition shake.” She said she stopped because of its vitamin A content, which she didn’t think was good for her while pregnant.
The company, now called BODi, confirmed she was one of about 300,000 independent distributors in 2013.
Beachbody has faced legal trouble over the years. In 2017, it paid $3.6 million to settle a Santa Monica consumer protection lawsuit alleging that health claims for products including Shakeology were “false, misleading, and not backed by scientific evidence," but the company admitted no wrongdoing.
In 2023, a class action accused the company of scamming its coaches. The lead plaintiff, a schoolteacher, said she spent $20,000 on expenses while earning about $50 a month. That case was later settled and dismissed, and the company dropped its multilevel marketing model in 2024.
The revelation adds to the questions swirling around Zacharia’s credentials just days into her new job. Her LinkedIn says she worked as general counsel for Fix California, a nonprofit led by Trump ally Richard Grenell. But tax filings reviewed by WIRED show she was actually a fundraiser for the group.
Zacharia has described herself as a lawyer, and Fox News identified her as an attorney in at least 18 appearances, but she never passed the bar.
The Wall Street Journal reported that she failed the California exam, and WIRED independently confirmed it. A watchdog group has filed a complaint with the State Bar of California.
She isn’t the only Trump figure with ties to the supplement trade. FBI Director Kash Patel has promoted supplements meant to “detox” from the COVID-19 vaccine. Nicole Saphier, Trump’s surgeon general nominee, reported nearly $300,000 in income from a company with a supplement line.
Trump himself once oversaw a multilevel marketing company, The Trump Network, which sold vitamins and home urine tests.