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Sarah Sanders is leaving the White House

Sarah Sanders
Sarah Sanders. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders is leaving her post at the end of the month, President Trump announced on Twitter 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. 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!"

Why it matters: Sanders has long been one of President Trump's fiercest and most loyal defenders, and she became notorious for her combative exchanges with reporters and — toward the latter part of her tenure — lack of press briefings (it's been 94 days since the last one). As Axios' Jonathan Swan notes, by the end, Sanders wasn't really a press secretary. She was a top adviser who Trump consulted on just about everything.

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Sarah Sanders