Is White House principal deputy press secretary Anna Kelly officially President Donald Trump's next press secretary as of Oct. 23, 2026? No, that's not true: The White House has not announced who will replace Katie Zacharia, who held the job for five days before being fired on Oct. 16, 2026. The White House told Lead Stories that President Trump and his team are currently focused on the midterm elections.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) by the @WikifirstPost account on X on Oct. 22, 2026. It opened:
Anna Kelly is officially President Trump's next White House Press Secretary.
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by @WikifirstPost on X.)
White House
In an Oct. 23, 2026, email, the White House press office responded to Lead Stories' inquiry with a statement from White House communications director Steven Cheung:
President Trump and his team are focused on the midterm elections. The President is the best messenger and unmatched motivator for the Republican Party and he will continue crisscrossing the country to share his commonsense, America First agenda directly with the American people.
The midterm elections are scheduled for Nov. 3, 2026.
Talking to reporters (archived here) outside the White House on Oct. 23, 2026, Trump was asked whether there was any news about a press secretary. He responded:
No, nothing much. We're in no rush.
The video is embedded below:
News searches
Lead Stories searched Google News (archived here) and Yahoo News (archived here) and found no matching reports about the claim from established news outlets using the search terms: "Anna Kelly" and "White House Press Secretary."
