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In just five days, she was out – the result of a disastrous press conference that lasted all of 14 minutes, followed by a series of halting media appearances and questions about whether she had mischaracterised her legal credentials over the course of her career.

The axe dropped on Friday, with the news delivered – in a roundabout way - by Trump himself before the gathered media at the White House, as he recounted a conversation he had with Zacharia earlier in the day.

"Honestly, if I were you, I'd reconsider," Trump said he told Zacharia. "Katie, do you need this? I don't think you need this."

He later added that maybe the press secretary job "is not for her".

In case there was any doubt, the White House quickly confirmed to the BBC that Zacharia would be "transitioning" out of her current job.

Trump may be wondering whether Zacharia "needs" the press secretary job, but presidents – including this one - benefit most from a competent press secretary in times of crisis.

And while there may not be an immediate crisis, this White House is certainly facing growing adversity.

Across the US, Republican candidates are scrambling to hold on to their seats in the upcoming elections. Some are doing so by distancing themselves from the president and his policies, creating new stresses and faultlines within a party that has for so long been broadly unified behind Trump.

Meanwhile, the White House has been beset by a series of controversies – including allegations of corruption that forced the resignation of US Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle and an abrupt reversal of plans to publicly air a military execution in December after widespread bipartisan backlash.

A skilled press secretary may have been able to navigate these political landmines while continuing to push out the White House's preferred message in the face of a building media frenzy.

Karoline Leavitt, who worked as Trump's press secretary from the start of his second term until she resigned in August a few months after welcoming her second child, proved highly adept at defending the administration from the press room lectern while avoiding stumbles and maintaining a collegial relationship with journalists.

Her performance set a high bar for Zacharia, who was a relative novice. It was a mark she failed to reach or even approach, although she never really had much of a chance.

The speed at which she failed was astounding, setting a modern record for the shortest-tenured White House press secretary.

Zacharia's halting Tuesday press conference performance, combined with those questions about her legal background, essentially sealed her fate.

And subsequent press appearances, including a less-than-welcoming interview with conservative pundit Sean Hannity on Thursday – which Trump said he watched – did nothing to change that.

As president, Trump has essentially acted as his own press secretary, making major announcements and changing policies from the Oval Office, the White House lawn, airfield tarmacs – wherever he happens to be.

Zacharia herself noted this phenomenon prior to being tabbed for the White House job. "President Trump does not need a spokesperson," she posted on X. "He is his own best press secretary."

Now, he will have to be.

Trump's penchant for speaking off the cuff, however, has made the job a difficult one over the course of his two terms in office.

His press secretaries have sometimes had their public statements undermined by presidential pronouncements. At other times, they've been left out of the loop of key decisions.

When they have been effective, they have managed to ride the choppier waves while also smoothing relations with the media - providing context for inquisitive journalists and helping tamp down any simmering issues.

In comments to Fox News on Friday, Trump said that he is in "no rush" to find a new press secretary. But at such a critical time in his second term, Trump will be without the help that someone like Leavitt offered so consistently.

He may come to regret not having it. %!s()

By the genre’s usual definition, a Zelda-like is an action-adventure game with mandatory puzzle solving, progression gated by new abilities or items, and dungeons that stand apart from the overworld. These nine games hit at least three of those criteria — usually with a bit of an oddball twist. Grab your sword (or yoyo, or large key), it’s time for an adventure!

9

Ocean’s Heart (2021)

Image: Max Mraz

Zelda, but: A girl searches a world of islands for her missing father.

At one point, Tilia’s biggest problem was dealing with dirty dishes. Along with her father and sister, Tilia runs the family tavern in Limestone, a village on a small island — until disaster strikes. Pirates raid the island and kidnap her best friend…and then her father, in hot pursuit of the pirates, vanishes outright. Tilia grabs a sword and starts following their trail.

Ocean’s Heart features Zelda-like progression: You gain weapons and tools by exploring, and those tools unlock further environmental exploration, including a set of ancient, foreboding dungeons. The whimsical wit is there, too: The first town Tilia visits is guarded by the Barbell Brutes, a cartel of lifting-obsessed guards. There’s even a whole side quest centered on a dog’s birthday. Consider this your invite to take the scenic route to help reunite Tilia with her dad.

8

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales (2026)

Image: Square Enix

Zelda, but: It’s from the Octopath Traveler team, and the dungeons span four eras.

Humanity’s last refuge is the walled Kingdom of Huther. Everything outside belongs to the beastmen. So when ruins pop up beyond the wall, King Hichard does what any smart ruler would do: He sends someone else to check it out. That someone is Elliot, a renowned yet slightly goofy adventurer who travels with Faie, a fairy only he can see. In the ruins, Elliot finds a doorway through which he can access different chapters of Huther’s history. The Zelda influence here is crystal clear: Elliot’s got a sword, bombs, bow, and a boomerang to lean on as he travels through an overworld and delves through dungeons. Much as is the case in Ocarina of Time or A Link to the Past, you’ll explore basically-the-same-map throughout all four time periods, so you’re going to get to know your neighborhood quite well.

7

Master Key (2024)

Image: Achromi

Zelda, but: In a Game Boy palette of your choosing.

This game hands you a rusty key big enough to swing like a sword and nearly no text instructions to work with. You play as a fox who falls into a cave and finds the key. Your hints as to game progression arrive as little pictures to decode. This throwback adventure game focuses on finding new items and using them to discover secrets around the world. It’s got a black-and-white retro look, with the ability to swap in other two-color schemes as you like. Explore enough, here, and you may even find a sword in a stone that drains your health as you attempt to pull it free…

6

Prodigal (2020)

Image: Colorgrave

Zelda, but: You also date the townsfolk.

Ten years after stealing from his parents and sailing south, Oran gets a note from his grandfather: Tragically, both of his parents are dead. Oran returns to his hometown, but not everyone there is thrilled to see him. This Game Boy Color-style adventure sends Oran into dungeons that each hand him a new tool. Those new items open paths to areas he couldn’t reach before — which should sound extremely familiar to anyone who’s booted up a Zelda game. Between dungeons, Oran can earn the trust of various townsfolk by giving them gifts and helping with their problems. Some of these people may even be love interests, so, if you’ve ever wondered what a retro Zelda game crossed with a dating sim would feel like — this is a good place to get started.

5

Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo (2025)

Image: Pocket Trap

Zelda, but: Your weapon is a yoyo, and your enemies are crime bosses.

Most Zelda-likes give you a sword. Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo gives you a yoyo. Pippit, a young bat, only wants to focus on yoyo tournaments. He’s on his way to ask his aunt, Madame Pipistrello, for money, when rival crime bosses split her soul among four giant batteries. The fifth piece lands in his yoyo, which now talks in her voice. From there on out, the structure gets even more Zelda-like: Each of the city’s four districts has its own boss, reminiscent of Zelda’s dungeon challenges, and each one hands you a new yoyo power. Buying upgrades puts you into debt, so a boss fight gets riskier the more you’ve spent. (Yoko Shimomura, who composed music for Street Fighter 2 and several Kingdom Hearts games, wrote some of the soundtrack, if you needed another reason.)

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4

Warden: Melody of the Undergrowth (2016)

Image: Cardboard Keep

Zelda, but: It’s a 3D collect-a-thon with ‘90s flair.

In this Zelda-like, you play as Tavian, who is swept away from your father by a river. By the time you climb out, a strange deity has made you a warden of the woods. Your new job is to find a lost god. Fortunately, you’re joined by two other wardens (who you also control). Each of your wardens brings a different ability to dungeons built, conveniently, around their talents — much as a Zelda dungeon might be built around one recently-collected tool. The three-person studio Cardboard Keep modeled the game after N64-era adventures, including hand-painted scenes and a color palette reminiscent of Zelda games like Wind Waker. One pro tip: Weapons in this game snap quickly, so, even though you can carry three at a time, it’s worth it to stop and stockpile more from fallen enemies.

3

Mages of Mystralia (2017)

Zelda, but: You design your own spells.

Magic is illegal in Mystralia. A mad mage-king once destroyed whole towns in his paranoia, so current-day townsfolk have taken precautions to make sure that doesn’t happen again. Zia, a young woman from Greyleaf Hamlet, learns this the hard way when a burst of fire magic burns her home down and gets her exiled. She heads to Haven, the secret hideout of the last mages, and meets a talking spellbook who has opinions. As she embarks on an adventure to explore dungeons, fight enemies, and collect the hearts, currency, and mana they drop, she learns to wield forbidden magic — starting with four base spells and a growing set of runes. Attach a movement rune to a basic fire spell and you get a fireball; put it on your shield, and it becomes a dash. Magic may be illegal, but it’s also intriguingly customizable.

2

Kharon’s Crypt – Even Death May Die (2022)

Image: Andromeda Project

Zelda, but: You’re a dead ferryman who can possess every enemy.

Death has been sealed away in a crypt by a deranged king who wants to live forever. (Attempting to trap Death is a bold plan, but if it works, more props to you.) Kharon, a being thought to be Death itself, escapes from this situation by navigating through one continuous mega-dungeon. The combat will feel very familiar to anyone who has played a top-down Zelda. Kharon can take over any enemy he meets, flying around as a bat, fighting from inside a skeleton, or hiding with a mimic’s abilities. Those bodies unlock puzzles he can’t solve alone. This is a game about death and imprisonment, so it’s thematically heavier than Zelda usually gets, and the bosses don’t hold back. And, as the subtitle promises, even death may die. Kharon’s counting on it.

1

Minit (2018)

Devolver Digital

Zelda, but: You die every 60 seconds.

One minute, then you die. That’s the curse on the sword you pick up on a beach in Minit, where you play an unnamed duck-like creature who lives with a dog on an island crawling with other duck-like creatures. Even though you have precious few seconds to get anything done, you wake up at the last place you visited, and everything you’ve collected comes with you, so you do have time to make progress. It’s kind of like Majora’s Mask distilled down into one minute…with item-gated, top-down exploration…and a boss waiting for you at the sword factory nearby. Sixty seconds doesn’t sound like much. But, as you’ll find, it’s more than enough time to get hooked. %!s()

“Since Sunday night, the public account of what happened to Selma aboard a flight to New York has been built almost entirely on a police statement and a decade-old headline,” Blair’s rep said in a statement to People.

On Sunday night, Blair was detained after allegedly assaulting multiple flight attendants and additional erratic behavior exhibited on an inbound Delta Airlines flight from Los Angeles International Airport to John F. Kennedy airport. 

Blair’s rep initially said the actress suffered a “medical emergency,” but the initial investigation found that the actress had an altercation with three flight attendants that resulted in their injuries.

“A handful of journalists have taken the time to report on Selma as a human being rather than a headline, and we are grateful to them,” Blair’s rep said without specification. “But fair reporting has been the exception, and in the space left by our silence, speculation has hardened into something being treated as fact. We can, however, correct the record on a few points already in public circulation.”

The rep reiterated that Blair “experienced a medical emergency on the flight,” and denied the most dangerous accusation against the actress: That Blair attempted to open the door of the plane mid-flight.

“There was no attempt to open the door of the aircraft. Selma did not intend to harm anyone,” the rep added.

The “decade-old headline” cited by Blair’s rep refers to an incident in 2016 where Blair was removed from a plane for causing a disturbance. Two years after that incident, the actress revealed she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, the authenticity of which — in the aftermath of the latest plane incident — people have questioned, according to Blair’s rep. 

“The suggestion by anyone that Selma does not have multiple sclerosis is outrageous. Her diagnosis has been public since 2018,” the rep said. “What Selma has been able to do physically in the years since is nothing short of a miracle. She still has bad days, and she lives with pain daily. Selma also has pseudobulbar affect, a neurological condition secondary to her MS, which bears directly on how a medical episode presents to people who do not know her.”

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Blair pleaded not guilty to two counts of second-degree assault stemming from the plane incident and was released on bail; the actress is scheduled to appear at a Comic-Con in Connecticut this weekend. The FBI is investigating the plane incident.

“There is much more to this story than has been reported, and we ask to consider the entirety of the facts before rushing to judgment, whether in the courtroom or in the court of public opinion,” Blair’s rep added. %!s()