Sarah Ewall-Wice
Fri, October 9, 2026
THE DAILY BEAST
Photo Illustration by Victoria Sunday/The Daily Beast/Getty Images
President Donald Trump's new press secretary has a history of spreading misinformation, from election denialism to an extreme claim linking the abortion pill mifepristone to Nazi concentration camps.
Katie Zacharia was named White House press secretary on Friday, filling the role vacated by Karoline Leavitt, who left the role at the end of August.
When not busy with her frequent appearances on conservative television, including Fox News and Newsmax, the 41-year-old blonde MAGA commentator has been a rabid poster on social media, where she defends Trump and blasts his enemies.
But she has also promoted an outlandish argument attempting to tie the abortion pill directly to Nazi Germany and concentration camps, as captured in a recently resurfaced clip:
In November 2025, Zacharia posted on X about the claim, similar to ones used by right-wing anti-abortion activists.
She wrote, "Mifepristone, formerly called RU-486, is connected to the manufacturer of the deadly gas Zyklon B, used in the World War II concentration camps."
The new press secretary posted a conspiracy theory trying to tie the abortion pill to Nazi Germany in November 2025. / X
She continued, "Zyklon-B was originally used as a pesticide and marketed by the German Corporation for Pest Control, now known as Detia Degesch GmbH. Degesch, in which German chemical company I.G. Farben had a 42.5% interest and on whose board of 11 it had five seats, was the sole producer of the gas."
Conservative media commentator Katie Zacharia, pictured Dec. 14, 2025, is the new White House Press Secretary. / Terry Wyatt/Getty Images for 2521 Entertainment and Angel Studios
"According to the New York Times, 'I.G. Farben played so important a role in Hitler's war machine and in the Holocaust that it came to be called "the devil's chemist." It manufactured Zyklon B, the gas-chamber poison, among many other products, and its factories exploited more than 35,000 slave labourers, many from Auschwitz. It even built a concentration camp of its own to improve efficiency,'" Zacharia posted.
It's not exactly clear where she came up with her conspiracy theory tying RU-486 to Zyklon B and concentration camps.
RU-486, which is known generically as mifepristone, is a synthetic steroid medication invented in the 1980s by a French pharmaceutical company, Roussel-Uclaf.
The abortion pill, mifepristone, was invented by a French company in the 1980s. / Callaghan O'Hare / Callaghan O'Hare/File Photo/Reuters
The name comes from an abbreviation for the company plus a serial number, as noted by Britannica.
It was approved for use in 1988. Meanwhile, the gas Zyklon B used in death camps was provided by Degesch, a subsidiary of I.G. Farben, which later evolved into the German chemical company Hoechst, according to Britannica.
While Roussel-Uclaf was acquired by Hoechst AG, that did not happen until 1997, nearly a decade after RU-486 was approved for use. Mifepristone was approved for use in the U.S. by the FDA in 2000.
Katie Zacharia has been named as the next White House press secretary. / The Daily Beast/Katie Zacharia/Instagram
Not only is its creation attributed to the French company, but French biochemist Étienne-Émile Baulieu is credited specifically as the "father" of the abortion pill for his work on RU-486. He was born in France and was a member of the French Resistance during the war before attending school to become a physician.
Zacharia has also promoted Trump's baseless claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, even invoking the death of a National Guard soldier to attack former President Joe Biden.
In a December 2025 post on X, Zacharia responded to a White House tribute to Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, 20, who was fatally shot while serving in Washington, D.C.
"The price of a stolen 2020 election and subsequent autopen presidency is American Blood," she wrote, adding, "RIP 🕊️."
Katie Zacharia pushed Trump's baseless stolen election theory. / Katie Zacharia/X
But Beckstrom had been deployed to the nation's capital in August 2025 as part of Trump's own National Guard operation, months after Biden left office. She was shot on Nov. 26 and died the following day. There is no evidence that the 2020 election was stolen, and Zacharia offered no evidence connecting Biden's presidency to Beckstrom's killing.
Zacharia, who was named White House press secretary on Friday, previously served in the Trump administration as spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security from February to March 2026.
Trump’s New Press Secretary Runs to Fox News for Awkward Debut
Evgenia Anastasakos
Sat, October 10, 2026
DAILY BEAST
Fox News
Press Secretary Katie Zacharia has run to one of the president's favorite shows in her first appearance since being named press secretary.
Zacharia, 41, awkwardly fawned over her new boss in a softball interview on Fox & Friends that was focused on her new gig.
"I am looking forward to walking in and working for President Trump," she told the panel. "This job is not about me; this job is about him and how he wants to communicate to the American people. His policies are the most effective, the most exciting. He is the most energetic and intense president we have ever seen."
The mother of four is replacing Karoline Leavitt, who left the White House in August. She officially starts on Monday, but is already playing the role of MAGA's top mouthpiece.
"When I was there yesterday, he went and showed me where the ballroom will be," she said of her White House visit. "The building is so fast—he is ahead of schedule, under budget, and it's going to be amazing, and just to see this vision he has for building, but also for America and the greatness that America has and has always had, and that he's bringing back, I can't wait to work for President Trump on Monday."
When asked whether she'll hold a press briefing on her first day, she said she will if Trump asks her to.
Fox News
Press Secretary Katie Zacharia has run to one of the president's favorite shows in her first appearance since being named press secretary.
Zacharia, 41, awkwardly fawned over her new boss in a softball interview on Fox & Friends that was focused on her new gig.
"I am looking forward to walking in and working for President Trump," she told the panel. "This job is not about me; this job is about him and how he wants to communicate to the American people. His policies are the most effective, the most exciting. He is the most energetic and intense president we have ever seen."
The mother of four is replacing Karoline Leavitt, who left the White House in August. She officially starts on Monday, but is already playing the role of MAGA's top mouthpiece.
"When I was there yesterday, he went and showed me where the ballroom will be," she said of her White House visit. "The building is so fast—he is ahead of schedule, under budget, and it's going to be amazing, and just to see this vision he has for building, but also for America and the greatness that America has and has always had, and that he's bringing back, I can't wait to work for President Trump on Monday."
When asked whether she'll hold a press briefing on her first day, she said she will if Trump asks her to.
Zacharia previously served as a senior communications advisor at Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social. She was also a frequent guest commentator on Fox News and Newsmax and a lawyer for Fix California, a nonprofit founded by Trump ally Ric Grenell.
She also briefly worked under Kristi Noem as a deputy assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security.
On Fox, Zacharia defended Trump's diesel deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which has been slammed as a betrayal of Ukraine and our European allies. Zacharia says the deal is "not actually deleterious toward bringing peace."
"In fact, it works toward peace," Zacharia said. She did not elaborate on how the agreement will help end the Russia-Ukraine war.
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