Former White House press secretary Katie Zacharia has yet again caught the attention of social media after posting what appeared to be digitally altered photos of herself and her family with US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office. The controversy erupted days after Zacharia was removed from the role, just five days into her tenure.
Zacharia shared the first photograph on X while paying tribute to Trump following her departure on Friday. The image showed her standing beside Trump, who was seated behind the Resolute Desk and smiling at the camera.
“President Trump is a kind, wonderful, gracious, thoughtful, enthusiastic, and hardworking man. I wish more Americans appreciated him. No one will ever make America great the way he has and continues to. It was an honor to work for him,” she wrote in the caption of the X post.
Hours later, Zacharia posted another picture featuring Trump, herself and her family in the Oval Office, with her children’s faces blurred. “Thank you, President Trump, for hosting my family and me in the Oval Office and for the generous gifts you gave my children on my son’s birthday. It was an unforgettable honor,” she wrote alongside the image.
{{/usCountry}}Hours later, Zacharia posted another picture featuring Trump, herself and her family in the Oval Office, with her children’s faces blurred. “Thank you, President Trump, for hosting my family and me in the Oval Office and for the generous gifts you gave my children on my son’s birthday. It was an unforgettable honor,” she wrote alongside the image.
{{/usCountry}}Social media users soon pointed out similarities between the two images, questioning whether the photographs had been edited. In both pictures, Trump appeared to have the same smile and hand positions, while the chair behind him seemed to have shifted slightly. Users also highlighted differences in the objects visible on his desk.
“Both are the same picture of Trump,” an X user commented while sharing a side-by-side comparison of the photographs. “Did you add yourself and your family there?”
Others speculated that Photoshop or artificial intelligence (AI) tools may have been used to alter the images.
(Also Read: Katie Zacharia pushed for ‘disastrous’ Fox News interviews before White House exit, report claims)
Map on Trump’s desk sparks questions
A Washington Post report also claimed that digital traces indicated the second photograph had been modified. The report focused on objects visible on Trump’s desk.
A campaign group called Save East Po also drew attention to an apparent discrepancy involving a map in the photographs. The first image appeared to show a blurred map resting on a stack of blue books to Trump’s right. The map was missing from the second photograph featuring Zacharia’s family.
The group alleged that the map depicted East Potomac Park, a federally owned area where Trump is involved in a legal dispute over plans to alter a golf course. “FYI to anyone paying attention – that blurred out map on the PRESIDENT’S DESK is East Potomac Park,” Save East Po wrote on X while reposting Zacharia’s photograph.
Alex Rosen, the group’s founder, told The Washington Post that he was confident the map depicted the park, citing similarities between the shape in the photograph and the peninsula’s outline. “It’s a distinctive shape. When you look at that photo, it is very clear that you can draw comparisons between that and what the peninsula looks like,” Rosen told the outlet.
“I’ve spent a ton of time looking at that photo. That silhouette looks pretty damning, and it looks almost identical to what East Potomac looks like,” he added.
Notably, the map has drawn attention because the legal dispute partly concerns the administration’s progress on plans for the golf course. The Trump administration has maintained that it does not have a final design for the project and that tree removal at the site is unrelated to those plans.
“Nothing says ‘we have no plan’ like a photo of plan-shaped map on the President’s desk, followed by a second photo where that map has been digitally removed,” the group wrote in a follow-up post, alleging that the image raised questions about the administration’s account of the project’s progress.
(Also Read: Katie Zacharia was interrupted mid-interview, then came her exit as Trump's press secretary)
Katie Zacharia’s brief White House tenure
Trump announced Katie Zacharia as Karoline Leavitt’s successor on Truth Social on October 9. Her tenure ended just five days later, following her first press briefing, which lasted less than 15 minutes and included only three questions from reporters.
Questions also emerged over her legal credentials and use of the term “lawyer”. Although she graduated from Pepperdine University’s law school, she had not passed the California bar exam.
Zacharia defended her descriptions of herself as a lawyer, saying she had worked as a lawyer in China and that her media appearances involved legal analysis rather than the provision of legal advice.
Before joining the White House, Zacharia worked in communications for Trump Media & Technology Group, which operates Truth Social. She also briefly worked at the Department of Homeland Security during Trump’s second administration.