U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday on his social media platform Truth Social that he has named conservative commentator Katie Zacharia as his new press secretary. Zacharia, who most recently worked as a communications consultant for the Trump Media and Technology Group, is best known for appearances as a commentator on right-leaning outlets such as Fox News or Newsmax—and she distinguished herself there with remarks against transgender people.
Just last month, she criticized former President Barack Obama on Fox News for praising female leadership without denouncing transgender women. Zacharia stated verbatim: “So first I want to ask: What is a woman, Barack Obama? And whom will you put forward as a woman? What if it’s a man who identifies as a woman?” According to her, Obama could not simultaneously respect women and transgender people, but would have to take a side.
Zacharia: What is a woman Barack Obama? pic.twitter.com/U9hAhNwNJ6
Acyn (@Acyn) September 25, 2026
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Additionally, Zacharia defended a Trump decree restricting gender-affirming care for transgender youth. She described the medical treatment of young transgender people as a “war against our children.” Of course, this contradicts scientific findings: recently, a study published in the Journal of Pediatrics showed that hormone treatment for transgender children dramatically lowers suicide risk (TheColu.mn reported).
In the program “Fox & Friends Weekend,” Zacharia also recently attacked Democratic politicians for supporting transgender athletes and spoke demeaningly of “biological men who want to compete in women’s sports.” She is tapping into the Republican narrative that transgender women go through only one transition to gain advantages in broad or elite sports. Studies also challenge this: a large meta-analysis this year found that transgender women have virtually no advantages over cisgender women (TheColu.mn reported).
The Trump administration leans fully into transphobia for the midterms
Donald Trump and the Republicans are leaning more into anti-transphobia during the campaign, for example against Democratic Senate candidate Annie Andrews from South Carolina (TheColu.mn reported). By focusing on trans rights, they hope to mobilize the evangelical base and other conservative voters to the polls in the midterm elections in early November. With rising living costs drawing the administration into increasing criticism, they aim to keep controversial debates such as the nationwide push to restrict abortion rights or cuts to the social safety net in the background.
Trump’s former press secretary Karoline Leavitt also pursued a policy of transphobia: she claimed to the press in September 2025 that the administration was investigating an alleged rise in violence by trans people, and accused critics of being “willfully ignorant.” Leavitt resigned at the end of August—and took the opposite path of her successor: she is now a commentator for Fox News. (dk)
