Sarah Huckabee Sanders

On July 21, 2017, after Spicer announced that he was going to resign, newly appointed White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci announced that Sanders would take the role of White House press secretary. Sanders is the third woman to hold the role of White House Press Secretary after Dee Dee Myers in 1993 and Dana Perino in 2007. Sanders is the first mother, and first working mother, to ever hold the position.

In August 2017, Sanders said Trump "certainly didn't dictate" a statement released by Donald Trump Jr. about the 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Russians. She also said that Trump "weighed in, offered suggestion like any father would do." In January 2018, Trump's lawyers wrote to the special counsel investigation that "the President dictated" the statement Donald Trump Jr. released. In June 2018, the media asked Sanders to explain the discrepancy in the statements, but she repeatedly refused to answer, saying: "I'm not going to respond to a letter from the president's outside counsel ... We've purposefully walled off, and I would refer you to them for comment", and "I'm an honest person".

In October 2017, CBS News's Jacqueline Alemany asked Sanders whether the official White House position was that all 16 women who accused Trump of sexual harassment were lying. Sanders responded, "Yeah, we've been clear on that since the beginning, and the President has spoken on it", without elaborating. In November 2017, Trump retweeted three unverified anti-Muslim videos by Britain First, a far-right British group with a history of posting misleading videos. Sanders commented, "Whether it's a real video, the threat is real and that is what the president is talking about, that's what the president is focused on, is dealing with those real threats, and those are real no matter how you're looking at it." Theresa May, the prime minister of the United Kingdom, was among those to criticize Trump's actions.

In February 2018, after Rob Porter left the White House over domestic abuse allegations, Sanders said that Porter's background check was "ongoing, and the White House had not received any specific papers regarding the completion of that background check". After FBI director Christopher Wray testified that the FBI had finished and submitted its security-clearance investigation on Porter to the White House earlier in July 2017, Sanders instead claimed that it was instead the White House's personnel security office's investigation that was ongoing, which contradicted her earlier statement that the clearance process "doesn't operate within the White House". She said that Porter had made a "personal decision" to leave the White House, while White House deputy press secretary Raj Shah said that Porter was "terminated".

In March 2018, Sanders said of the Stormy Daniels–Donald Trump scandal, "there was no knowledge of any payments from the president" to Daniels. In May 2018, Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani said that Trump had repaid his lawyer Michael Cohen $130,000 after Cohen paid Daniels. In response to questions about the discrepancy, Sanders claimed that she did not know of this development and that her earlier statement was based on the "best information" she had at the time. In mid-June 2018, when questioned on the Trump administration's family separation policy, which resulted in the separation of migrant children from their parents at the Mexico–United States border, Sanders falsely blamed Democrats for the policy and said "it is very biblical" to implement the policy. Christian leaders such as Daniel DiNardo and Franklin Graham strongly disagreed with the policy, calling it "immoral" or "disgraceful", while Bible scholar and professor Matthew Schlimm said that the Bible was being misused just as slave traders and Nazis had done.

In July 2018, Sanders said the Trump White House would discuss allowing Russian agents to interrogate former U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul. The Russian government had harassed and intimidated McFaul for years, without specifying what criminal allegations they would interrogate him about. U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said that she could not answer on the White House's behalf, but that the State Department considered the Russian allegations against McFaul "absolutely absurd". Several current and former diplomats condemned the White House's willingness to entertain Russian interrogation of a former U.S. ambassador.

In an August 2018 press conference, Sanders was repeatedly asked by Jim Acosta, a CNN reporter, to say that the press was not the "enemy of the people", and she did not do so. Sanders had a tumultuous relationship with the press and was the subject of numerous personal attacks regarding her looks and her weight. That same month, The Washington Post reported that Sanders and her deputy Bill Shine strategized optimal times to release announcements that the security clearances of various Trump critics and officials involved in the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election had been revoked. The announcements were intended to be released to distract from news cycles that were unfavorable to the White House.

The morning after publication of the September 5, 2018, New York Times op-ed "I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration", Sanders used her official government Twitter account to tweet that the anonymous writer was a "gutless loser" and to charge that those in the newspaper's opinion department are "the only ones complicit in this deceitful act". Her September 6 tweet gave the telephone number of the newspaper's opinion desk, and two former White House ethics chiefs declared that her tweet had violated federal law in an abuse of power, similar to her June 23, 2018, tweet specifically naming the restaurant that had refused her service in the Red Hen restaurant controversy.

In early November, CNN's Jim Acosta engaged in a verbal argument with Trump. While Acosta was asking Trump a question, an intern, at Trump's direction, tried to take away Acosta's microphone. Later in the day, Acosta's White House credentials were suspended, a move that was widely criticized as unprecedented. The next day, to justify the White House's actions, Sanders released a video of the moment the intern tried to grab the microphone from Acosta's hand. The video originated from conspiracy theorist Paul Joseph Watson of the far-right website Infowars, and was allegedly altered to make Acosta seem aggressive and excluded him saying, "Pardon me, ma'am", to the intern. Watson denied that the video was doctored in any way. CNN Communications Executive called Sanders's sharing of the video "shameful" and the White House News Photographers Association said it was "appalled" by her actions, called video manipulation "deceptive, dangerous and unethical", and said that what Sanders did was "equally problematic".

During the 2018–2019 federal government shutdown caused by Congress's refusal to fulfill Trump's demand for $5.7 billion in federal funds for a U.S.–Mexico border wall, Sanders argued that the wall was necessary, claiming that the CBP stopped nearly 4,000 known or suspected terrorists when they crossed the Mexico border in 2018. Data obtained by NBC News contradicted Sanders's assertion, showing that from October 1, 2017, to March 31, 2018, only six immigrants on the No Fly List (also known as the terror watch list) were encountered at ports of entry on the Mexico border. In an interview with Chris Wallace on Fox News, Wallace countered her claim of nearly 4,000 terrorists, saying, "I know the statistic. I didn't know if you were going to use it, but I studied up on this. Do you know where those 4,000 people come—where they are captured? Airports." In January 2019 Sanders said on the Christian Broadcasting Network that she thinks "God calls all of us to fill different roles at different times, and I think that he wanted Donald Trump to become president".

On June 13, 2019, Trump tweeted that Sanders would leave her role as press secretary on June 30. Under Sanders, the White House set at least three records for the most days between formal press briefings. The White House had a 41-day streak that ended in January 2019, then a 42-day streak that ended in March 2019, followed by 94 days and counting without a formal press briefing when Sanders's departure was announced.

The LEARNS Act repealed the Teacher Fair Dismissal Act and the Public School Employee Fair Hearing Act, instead changing policy to specify that employees have a right to notice of a recommendation for termination from the public school district and a hearing before the school board. Superintendents may no longer hire employees based on seniority or tenure, and instead must consider only performance and effectiveness. Other stipulations include requiring superintendents to consult with teachers before hiring a principal and allowing school boards to employ one or more assistant superintendents.

Provisions affecting student education and content include required literacy screenings for K-3 students and access to literacy coaches for K-3 students in D- and F-rated schools; students not meeting third-grade reading standards are to be held back from advancing to fourth grade the next year. Several prohibitions of content were implemented, including "indoctrination" or critical race theory, along with content that is sexually explicit or pertains to reproduction, gender identity, or sexual orientation before grade 5. Graduation criteria were changed, requiring students to have completed 75 hours of community service by the 2026-27 school year, allowing students to earn a diploma through a career-ready pathway rather than the traditional pathway, and allowing students in C- through F-rated schools to take courses not offered at their school elsewhere through the Course Choice Program.

Other LEARNS Act provisions include a 50/50 cost-sharing policy between the state and school districts that allows teachers to take 12 weeks of maternity leave, along with changes to the student loan repayment process for teachers. It also requires eligible postsecondary institutions to create an Arkansas Teacher Academy to encourage people to enter the teaching profession. School Transformation Contracts were also created, allowing public school districts with D or F ratings to be exempt from a state takeover if they instead partner with an open enrollment charter school or other State Board of Education-approved entity. Early childhood education is also addressed, with requirements for the relocation and creation of Early Childhood Education offices and systems into the Arkansas Department of Education.

The passage of the LEARNS Act drew mixed reactions. State Senate Minority Leader Tippi McCullough, a Democrat from Little Rock, expressed concern, saying, "LEARNS will dismantle and defund our public schools through a voucher system that has not worked anywhere ever. While some of the bill is admirable, its purported benefits will not reach our students in greatest need."

After the law went into effect, concerns rose about potential consolidation due to the bill. The Marvell–Elaine School District in rural Phillips County was scheduled to be consolidated under the Education Reorganization Act, which Governor Mike Huckabee signed into law in 2004, due to having fewer than 350 students and an F rating. State Senator John Payton, a Republican from Wilburn who voted for the LEARNS Act, proposed S.B. 292, which would eliminate the Education Reorganization Act's requirement that school districts whose two-year average daily attendance drops below 350 be consolidated. Sanders signed the bill into law after its passage on March 29, 2023. State Representative Mark McElroy, a Republican from Tillar who also voted for LEARNS and whose district includes the Marvell-Elaine school district, proposed an additional bill that included exceptions for districts that are classified as in need of Level 5 – Intensive support and that have students who would have to ride a bus more than 40 miles to attend the new consolidated district. The Marvell-Elaine School District ultimately remained open under a $200,000 transformation contract authorized by LEARNS, with the Friendship Education Foundation Arkansas managing the district.

The Citizens for Arkansas Public Education and Students (CAPES) initiated an effort to repeal LEARNS. The Arkansas Constitution allows citizens to place a referendum of any act passed by the General Assembly on the ballot by petition. CAPES had roughly 55 days to gather signatures from 6% of the total votes cast for governor in the previous election along with 3% of voters in at least 50 counties each. CAPES fell about 500 signatures short of the 54,422 signatures needed by July 31, 2023, to place the referendum on the ballot.

On March 31, 2023, Sanders declared a state of emergency in Arkansas after a tornado hit the state. This activated the National Guard, which began assisting with the recovery effort. Sanders also announced that she had spoken to President Joe Biden, who promised Arkansas federal aid to assist with the recovery.

On April 5, 2024, Sanders declared a five-day state of emergency in Arkansas ahead of the solar eclipse of April 8, releasing $100,000 from the state Response and Recovery Fund to assist with the state's response to the eclipse while waiving certain federal restrictions on commercial traffic for up to 14 days. Money from the disaster fund was to be used at the discretion of A.J. Gary, director of the Department of Public Safety's Division of Emergency Management, "to defray both program and administrative costs".

On March 14–15, 2025, severe storms impacted the state of Arkansas. Sanders declared a state of emergency and made a request for a major disaster declaration to the federal government, however, the request was initially denied by FEMA and President Trump. After an appeal from Sanders and Arkansas' Congressional delegation to reconsider, Trump approved the declaration on May 13, 2025.

On April 5, 2025, a major disaster declaration request made by Sanders was approved by Trump and FEMA for severe storms and flooding that began on April 2, 2025.

In June 2023, Sanders's office purchased a custom-made lectern for $19,029.25. The Arkansas Republican Party later reimbursed the governor's office for the lectern several days after a Freedom of Information Act request for the purchasing documents was filed. An executive assistant was instructed to add the note "to be reimbursed" to the original invoice and leave the note undated. After substantial media coverage of the purchase, the Arkansas State Legislature began an audit. Sanders denied any impropriety and said she welcomed the audit.

The audit showed that the lectern was purchased from Beckett Events LLC, a Virginia-based company run by political consultant and lobbyist Virginia Beckett, for $11,575. Beckett charged $2,500 for a "consulting fee" and $2,200 for the road case. The remainder of the cost represented shipping, delivery, and a credit-card processing fee. Similar lectern models are listed online for $7,500 or less, while the purchased lectern had no microphone or electronic components aside from a light. Sanders said it had additional features that contributed to its cost, including a custom height. The audit also found that a staff member had contacted an Arkansas-based equipment dealer and received a quote for portable podiums ranging in cost from $800 to $1,500. After Sanders proposed to deny public access to certain gubernatorial records, she faced public pushback. She later signed a law limiting public access to information about her security detail and her travels.

In October 2023, Sanders signed an executive order to eliminate the usage of "woke, anti-woman words" from official state documents. Banned terms include "womxn", "birth-giver", and "chestfeeding". The order was criticized by the ACLU. On March 18, 2025, Sanders signed the nitrogen hypoxia death penalty bill into law, making Arkansas the fifth state to allow execution by nitrogen hypoxia.

In November 2023, Arkansas-based Cooks Venture shut down operations. It informed contract farmers that it lacked the funds to process or feed any chickens and would kill all ~1.3 million birds. On December 8, state senator Bryan King sent Sanders a letter asking her to declare a state of emergency over the animal welfare, environmental, disease, and economic concerns of the killing of the birds. Sanders denied the request, calling it contrary to the values of free and fair markets.