White House press secretary Katie Zacharia has left her position just five days after being appointed by President Donald Trump, following intense scrutiny over her legal credentials.

A White House press official confirmed Friday that Zacharia was "let go" from the role. She had succeeded Karoline Leavitt.

Earlier on Friday, Trump told reporters he had advised Zacharia to reconsider staying in the job. "I don't think Katie should be made to suffer like she's suffering at the hands of the press," Trump said as he departed the White House. "I said to her, 'Honestly, if I were you, I'd reconsider. You think about it.'"

Trump later said there was no rush to hire a replacement.

Zacharia's brief tenure was overshadowed from the start by questions about whether she had ever passed the bar exam. Trump had described her as "an attorney" when announcing her appointment. She had also referred to herself as a lawyer.

When asked by a reporter during a White House appearance which state she had passed the bar exam in, Zacharia replied: "When I moved to China." She later said the answer was a misunderstanding, explaining she had mistakenly thought, above the noise of Marine One, that the reporter had asked where she was after law school.

In an interview on Thursday, Zacharia told Fox News she had not passed the bar exam. According to reports, she took the California bar exam after graduating from Pepperdine University School of Law in 2011 but did not pass. A person with direct knowledge of the matter said she sat the exam around the time she was planning her wedding and preparing to move to China with her husband. California's bar exam is widely regarded as one of the most difficult in the United States.

A law degree alone does not constitute a licence to practise law in the US.

Zacharia told the New York Times she had asked Pepperdine how she should identify herself when she first began appearing on cable news. She said the university president advised her she could call herself a lawyer, but not an attorney.

In a statement this week, Zacharia said: "I practised international transaction law, with all the appropriate credentials."

After not passing the bar, Zacharia moved to Beijing, where her husband worked at an American private equity firm. Her LinkedIn profile lists her as an associate at Zhong Lun Law Firm in Beijing from 2011 to 2013. In China, only Chinese citizens are eligible to obtain a licence to practise law. Foreign employees may work at law firms in other capacities.

She also said on a conservative radio programme in February of last year that she had worked as outside counsel for the International Finance Corporation and the World Bank during her time in China.

Zacharia later served as general counsel for Fix California, a conservative non-profit founded by Trump ally Ric Grenell, according to her LinkedIn profile.

White House communications director Steven Cheung defended her appointment, describing Zacharia as "uniquely qualified and whip smart to help inform the American people."

On Wednesday, the watchdog group Campaign for Accountability filed a complaint with the California State Bar Association, seeking an investigation into whether Zacharia "repeatedly held herself out to the public as entitled to practise law without a licence to do so, conduct California law treats as a crime."

Zacharia lasted five days in the role, roughly half the tenure of Anthony Scaramucci, who served ten days as White House director of communications during Trump's first administration.