White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders is leaving the Trump administration, the president announced Thursday.
“After 3 1/2 years, our wonderful Sarah Huckabee Sanders will be leaving the White House at the end of the month and going home to the Great State of Arkansas….,” Trump wrote on Twitter, his preferred platform for personnel announcements.
“….She is a very special person with extraordinary talents, who has done an incredible job! I hope she decides to run for Governor of Arkansas – she would be fantastic. Sarah, thank you for a job well done!” he continued in a second tweet.
Sanders addressed her departure during a press briefing later Thursday.
“This has been the honor of a lifetime, the opportunity of a lifetime. I couldn’t be prouder to have had the opportunity to serve my country and particularly to work for this president. He has accomplished so much in these two and a half years, and it’s truly been something I will treasure forever,” Sanders said.
“It’s one of the greatest jobs I could ever have. I’ve loved every minute — even the hard minutes,” Sanders continued. “I’ve loved it. I love the president. I love the team that I’ve had an opportunity to work for.
“I’m going to continue to be one of the most outspoken and loyal supporters of the president and his agenda. I know he’s going to have an incredible six more years and get a lot more done like what we’re here to celebrate today.”
Sanders, the daughter of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, started on Trump’s 2016 campaign and took over the spokeswoman post in July 2017, when former spokesman Sean Spicer quit following a major blowout with Trump over his hiring of short-lived communications director Anthony Scaramucci.
“She’s a special person — a very, very fine woman. She has been so great, she has such heart. She’s strong, but with great, great heart,” Trump said before planting a kiss on the side of her head.
“She’s going to be leaving the service of her country and going into the private sector, I guess you could say going back to Arkansas …. If you can get her to run for the governor of Arkansas, I think she’ll do very well.”
Term-limited Republican Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s term ends in 2022.