Trumps new messenger: From the Politics Desk

Welcome to From the Politics Desk, a daily newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign trail.In today’s edition, Megan Brand takes stock of the debut of the new White House press secretary.Plus, Natasha Korecki examines whether Republicans may have a surprise opportunity for a breakthrough in the Midwest.

— Adam WollnerTrump’s new White House press secretary keeps her first briefing shortBy Megan BrandPresident Donald Trump’s new White House press secretary Katie Zacharia held an unusually short first briefing with the media today, concluding after less than 15 minutes and calling on just three reporters, all from conservative outlets.Zacharia spent more than half of that time reading remarks before taking questions from Breitbart, Fox News and the Daily Mail.In response to one question, she also revealed that the administration has asked Kimberly Guilfoyle, the U.S.ambassador to Greece, to resign following allegations of misconduct.Zacharia spent most of her remarks touting the president’s policies and framed her new position as a job to “amplify” the president, something she said she’d done as a conservative commentator.

She referred to those appearances, telling reporters that she hopes to “take that into an official capacity.”Now, Zacharia said, she hopes to “only build on, only amplify, and only multiply, to the extent possible, all of the wins” that Trump is “making for Americans, for Americans to understand how much has changed in this brief period of time, what he’s been able to accomplish.”“My goal is to be able to communicate that in complete tandem with the president, as he is his own best spokesperson, and will absolutely be leading the way with that,” she added.Former White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt left at the end of August, leaving Trump without a chief spokesperson for much of the run-up to the midterms.The...