President Donald Trump says his longtime ally and press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders is leaving the White House at the end of the month.
The president announced the news on Twitter Wednesday. He says Sanders will be returning to her home state of Arkansas and has not immediately named a successor.
"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 tweeted. "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!"
Sanders is one of the president's closest and most trusted White House aides and one of the few remaining who worked on his campaign.
Her tenure was marked by a breakdown in regular White House press briefings and questions about the administration's credibility.
Special counsel Robert Mueller's revealed that Sanders admitted to investigators that she had made an unfounded claim that "countless" FBI agents had reached out to express support for Trump's decision to fire FBI Director James Comey in May 2017.