White House press secretary Katie Zacharia was spotted Monday, her first official day on the job, as President Trump boarded his helicopter to head to a rally with Jake Paul and Jon Gruden.
Zacharia watched from a distance as Trump gaggled with reporters for several minutes before boarding Marine One. The president is traveling to Youngstown, Ohio, for a midterm election rally for Republican candidates.
Zacharia is not accompanying the president on the trip. She’s slated to deliver her first press briefing on Tuesday.
Paul, a professional boxer and influencer, and Gruden, a Barstool Sports commentator and Super Bowl-winning NFL head coach, joined Trump on Marine One and are expected to appear at the Buckeye State rally.
Paul was donning a red “America is Back” hat.
Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio) and Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy are among the slate of candidates Trump has endorsed in Ohio.
Husted is locked in a tight race with former Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), while Ramaswamy is vying against physician and former public health official Amy Acton.
Gruden, a native of Sandusky, Ohio, was a college teammate of Husted’s at the University of Dayton.
The former Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Las Vegas Raiders head coach fired up the crowd at an Ohio rally for Husted, which Trump also spoke at, earlier this month.
Paul is also an Ohio native and appeared alongside Trump at a Kentucky event – just across the border – earlier this year.
Trump predicted the boxer and social media star “will be, in the not too distant future, running for political office,” at the Hebron, Ky., event.
