'Unhinged!' New Trump DHS pick melted down at gym for 'bullying' her over MAGA hat
A MAGA Fox News commentator who was reportedly selected to join the Department of Homeland Security as a spokesperson was outraged just days ago after she claimed her gym bullied her for wearing a Trump hat.
Katie Zacharia, an adviser to Richard Grenell, the current interim head of the Trump-Kennedy Center and former U.S. Ambassador to Germany, has been hired by DHS following the announcement that top DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin was leaving the Trump administration, a source told Axios in a report published Tuesday. Zacharia will join the agency as deputy assistant secretary for the Office of Public Affairs.
Zacharia penned an opinion piece on Sunday for the California Post, the New York Post's new West Coast operation, saying she was unfairly treated by people at her California kickboxing gym after wearing a particular hat and referred to "MAGA bullies."
"But last week, my 'Team Trump 2024' hat — earned from hard work helping flip Michigan red in Dearborn — triggered an unhinged meltdown," Zacharia claimed, who said one woman confronted her in a workout class and two others wrote emails to complain about her hat.
"Yet the gym caved to these liberal bullies, punishing a lawful viewpoint to appease outrage," Zacharia wrote.
She also blamed the owner and vowed to fight for her right to wear the hat, arguing it's her First Amendment right.
"The hypocrisy runs deeper than any Hollywood script," she added. "The owner has also quietly warned others to ditch MAGA gear to avoid 'offending' people. He has appointed himself ideological gatekeeper—an arbiter of acceptable speech—while profiting from the silenced majority."
Editor's note: A previous version of this story stated that Zacharia was a Fox News contributor. She is a commentator.