President Trump on Friday named Katie Zacharia as the next White House press secretary, turning to a conservative commentator who works as a communications adviser at the company that runs his Truth Social platform to replace Karoline Leavitt, who left the post at the end of August.

"It is my Great Honor to have just appointed, as Press Secretary, Katie Zacharia," Trump wrote on Truth Social. He said she had "an unblemished record of support" and had been "a loyal and brilliant supporter, right from the beginning," and he said he was confident she would "deliver strong results for our Country," adding that she "has the respect of, and will work fantastically with, the Media, the American People, and my Administration."

Leaving the White House on Friday, Trump told reporters that Zacharia was "a friend of most of you." He added that "we just hired a new press secretary, and she's going to be, I think, terrific."

Zacharia answered on X. "Serving President Trump and the American people at this critical 250-year mark is the honor of a lifetime," she wrote, describing the work ahead as "communicating to the American people the major wins that this Administration is making every single day." She said she looked forward to working with the White House press corps and called following Leavitt "a high standard, and one worth meeting."

She has been a senior communications adviser at Trump Media and Technology Group since June, after a two-month stint as a senior official at the Department of Homeland Security, where Time reported she was a spokesperson for former Secretary Kristi Noem. Before joining the department she spent almost three years as general counsel at Fix California, a conservative nonprofit founded by Richard Grenell, who was acting director of national intelligence in Trump's first term. A Pepperdine law graduate, she first came to Washington in 2006 as an intern at the Republican National Committee, and she has been a regular presence on Fox News, Fox Business and Newsmax.

The pick came together quickly. As of last week, Zacharia was not being considered for the job, CNN reported, citing a person familiar with the search, and in recent days Trump called close allies, Leavitt among them, to ask their opinion of her before he made a final decision. A White House official told CNN that on multiple occasions senior officials had narrowed the list only to find that candidates had said something negative about the president, which disqualified them. The New York Times first reported her selection.

Zacharia takes the job as Trump complains that poor public relations are overshadowing his administration's accomplishments ahead of the midterm elections. At a rally in Durant, Oklahoma, last week, he said that "we're doing a great job in running the country, but we're not doing a good job of public relations." At a Hispanic Heritage Month event in the East Room, he put it another way: "We're doing an extremely poor job of promotion, and an extremely great job of running the country."

The White House has not held a formal press briefing in 36 days, since Vice President J.D. Vance took the podium in early September, Time reported, and it is not clear when Zacharia will start. She will also step into what Time called a fight over the media's access to the president. Trump barred POLITICO, CNN and MS NOW from the White House grounds on Sept. 18, and while a federal judge's temporary restraining order restored their access, he has since kept POLITICO and CNN off Air Force One.

Leavitt, who became the youngest White House press secretary in history when she took the job at 27, has joined Fox News as an on-air contributor and starts there on Nov. 1.