white house Sarah Sanders to leave White House after turbulent ride

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, whose fierce loyalty to President Donald Trump and clashes with reporters defined her tenure, is stepping down at the end of the month.

The president announced her departure on Twitter Thursday afternoon. Trump said she would be returning to her home state of Arkansas, adding that he hoped she would decide to run for governor.


“She is a very special person with extraordinary talents, who has done an incredible job!” Trump wrote on Twitter. “I hope she decides to run for Governor of Arkansas — she would be fantastic. Sarah, thank you for a job well done!”

Speaking to reporters in her office on Thursday, Sanders did not rule out a run for governor, something that her associates have been buzzing about for months. "I learned a long time ago never to rule anything out," she said. Sanders’ father, Mike Huckabee, was governor of the state from 1996 to 2007.

Sanders earned a reputation as a forceful defender of her boss, rarely allowing even an inch of space between her public comments and the official White House line. She became a lightning rod for some of the Trump administration’s most controversial policies, for which she was called out by both reporters and the public.

Last June, the owner of a rural Virginia restaurant asked Sanders to leave, later citing the administration’s push to ban transgender people from serving in the military as a reason. “I explained that the restaurant has certain standards that I feel it has to uphold, such as honesty, and compassion, and cooperation,” Stephanie Wilkinson, the owner of the Red Hen in Lexington, Va., told The Washington Post.

In recent months, Sanders has refused to hold formal briefings, instead opting to appear on Fox News and brief reporters in the White House driveway, a Trump-approved strategy that has prompted fierce criticism from journalists.

Asked whether she regretted not holding more televised briefings, Sanders told reporters, "No, I don't," adding that she worked to facilitate direct contact between the president and the public.

Sanders' critics have repeatedly questioned her credibility, especially in the aftermath of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report. The report revealed that Sanders acknowledged to investigators that there was no basis for her 2017 assertion that “countless” rank-and-file FBI agents had lost confidence in James Comey, a claim she used to rationalize Trump’s decision to fire him as the bureau’s director.

Despite the rampant criticism, Sanders maintained cordial relationships with many White House reporters behind the scenes. White House aides said Sanders was leaving on good terms with the president.

Sanders told reporters that she hoped to spend more time with her school-age children this summer. She said she informed the president about her decision earlier Thursday. Her press team formally found out about her departure less than an hour before it was announced, in an apparent bid to keep the news from leaking.

As for the timing of her announcement, Sanders said she believed it was important for the president to have a new press secretary in place as he gears up for his reelection campaign. Rumors of Sanders' departure have been swirling for months, and while the press secretary balked at the suggestion that she seriously considered leaving last year, she allowed, “I think you have moments where maybe you feel like that.“

Trump praised Sanders during a White House event on Thursday afternoon. “She’s a special person, a very, very fine woman. She has been so great,” Trump said, calling her a “warrior.”

New Window In photos: A look back at Sanders' time as White House press secretary. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Sanders called being press secretary the best job of her life aside from being a mother.

“I’m going to continue to be one of the most outspoken and loyal defenders of the president,” she said during Thursday's White House event.

Sanders got her start in politics working for her father‘s first campaign for governor, and later served as national political director for his presidential campaign. She co-founded a consulting firm in Arkansas and later joined Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign as a senior adviser.

She is one of the last remaining original members of Trump’s White House staff, and his second press secretary. The third female White House press secretary in U.S. history, Sanders has served in that role since the summer of 2017.

She is the latest senior administration official to announce plans to leave the White House. Others recent departures include Shahira Knight, the White House legislative affairs director, and senior White House adviser Johnny DeStefano.

As other trusted advisers have departed the White House, Sanders has become one of Trump’s closest confidantes in the West Wing. She was often in the room for important meetings and regularly accompanied the president on foreign and domestic trips.

Pia Deshpande contributed to this report.

CORRECTION: This report has been updated to correct the owner of the Red Hen restaurant.