Doubts about qualifications: Trump's spokeswoman failed the exam

US President Donald Trump's new spokeswoman, Katie Zacharia, is a topic of conversation. During the debate about her professional qualifications, she admitted to failing a bar exam. In an interview, she said no when asked by Fox News host Sean Hannity whether she had passed the exam. When asked, she also admitted that she had not repeated the exam.

The fact that Hannity asked Zacharia such critical questions is remarkable. He is considered one of US President Donald Trump's closest and most influential confidants. On the TV channel Fox News, he regularly presents Trump's policies and actions in an unusually positive manner.

The conversation with Zachariah, however, was different. Among other things, he confronted her with the fact that, according to media reports, she had used a lawyer's title in around 15 social media posts, even though she had not proven the appropriate license to do so.

Zachariah tried to downplay the matter. Since she knew that she would live in China, the result of the test no longer mattered. She took the exam so as not to back down.

According to information from the Wall Street Journal, US President Trump's confidant failed the bar exam in the US state of California in 2011. The bottom line is that there is a subtle difference between the English terms “attorney” and “lawyer”. Although both words are largely used synonymously for lawyers, "attorney" requires a license to practice law. “Lawyer” is sometimes also used for law graduates. Trump himself referred to Zacharia as “attorney” when she was appointed.

Another sentence Zechariah made in an interview also caused a stir: China has no “real toilets” - a statement that is unlikely to cause much enthusiasm among the economic powerhouse. In an interview with right-wing influencer Jack Posobiec, the Trump spokeswoman recalled that in 2016 the expectation was that China would soon overtake the USA.

"We've all been told that Hillary (Clinton) is winning the presidential election. That the golden or glory days of America are over. That China is the next country on the horizon."

She had just returned from China at the time and asked herself: "How is China supposed to be the next country on the horizon? They don't even have proper toilets."

The Chinese leadership reacted calmly: Zachariah was welcome to come to China more often if the opportunity arose and take a look, said Foreign Office spokeswoman Mao Ning in Beijing with a grin in response to a reporter's question.

Zacharia also defended herself against criticism of her short first press conference. She told the conservative news portal Human Events that she had not had time to prepare thoroughly before her first press conference. It was planned from the outset to keep this short because President Donald Trump wanted to answer questions from journalists later in the morning.

The first documents for the press conference were said to have been given to Zacharia on Monday evening and then completed on Tuesday at 8 a.m. That was less than two hours before she was scheduled to appear before White House press officials. She had been up since 3 a.m. preparing, Zacharia said. "I had never had a full briefing before and I just went and held the press conference."

Her appearance lasted just under 15 minutes, the Trump spokeswoman only answered questions from three journalists from right-wing media - and caused laughter with a slip of the tongue when she spoke of "my president, sorry, my husband."