Press secretary exits after five days

Katie Zacharia is out as White House press secretary after just five days on the job, according to senior administration officials and sources familiar with the decision.

Zacharia to transition to new role

A senior administration official said Zacharia is transitioning into a new role that would be announced at a later date. She expressed gratitude for President Donald Trump in a statement Friday evening.

Zacharia's praise for Trump

In her statement, Zacharia said President Trump is a kind, wonderful, gracious, thoughtful, enthusiastic and hardworking man. She wrote there is nobody who will make America great the way he has.

“President Trump is such a kind, wonderful, gracious, thoughtful, enthusiastic, and hardworking man, I wish more Americans appreciated him.”

Rapid rise and fall

Trump announced Zacharia's appointment on Friday and she gave her first briefing on Tuesday morning, right after a three-day holiday weekend. Her sudden exit leaves a key White House communications role vacant.

Timing before midterms

Her departure comes less than three weeks before the midterm elections as Trump has complained publicly that his administration and party are suffering because of bad public relations.

Trump on PR struggles

At a rally in Durant, Oklahoma this month, Trump told supporters our country has never done better but cannot get the word across because of fake news and poor public relations efforts.

“Our country has never done better. We cannot get the word across because of the fake news and because ... we're doing a great job in running the country, but we're not doing a good job of public relations.”

No replacement expected soon

After Zacharia's departure, two sources familiar with the president's thinking told NBC News it is highly unlikely Trump will select a new press secretary any time soon.

Trump gave her the choice

Earlier Friday, Trump said he would let Zacharia decide whether to remain as press secretary after suggesting she was treated harshly by the media during her first week on the job.

“She's been treated, I would say pretty nastily, and I said to Katie just two minutes ago, I said, Katie, you know, you don't have to do this if you don't want.”

First briefing widely panned

Zacharia's first White House press briefing lasted less than fifteen minutes, during which she took only a few questions from reporters and could not answer one about whether the U.S.had stopped sharing intelligence with Ukraine.

Guilfoyle resignation announced

During the briefing, Zacharia announced that Trump had asked Kimberly Guilfoyle to resign as U.S.

Bar exam credentials questioned

Zacharia came under scrutiny after she represented herself as a lawyer but acknowledged this week that she did not pass her bar exam following law school.

No evidence of law license

There is no evidence Zacharia is licensed to practice law in any state, according to a review by NBC News.

Shorter than Scaramucci's tenure

Zacharia's time at the White House was even shorter than Anthony Scaramucci's as White House communications director during Trump's first term. Scaramucci served in the role for only eleven days.