Sarah Sanders begs her old boss Trump to reconsider after president rejects Arkansas' request for disaster relief funds
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has begged President Donald Trump to reconsider his rejection of her request for disaster relief funds after tornadoes devastated her state last month.
The former Trump White House press secretary wrote to Trump in March after storms ravaged the state, killing three people.
Sanders, who often sparred with journalists in the press room as White House Press Secretary during Trump's first administration, declared a state of emergency and asked her former boss to declare a major disaster so the state could secure a federal handout.
But the Trump administration rejected the request and said the damage could be handled by the state.
In an appeal to Trump, her former boss, Sanders and the Arkansas Division of Emergency Management wrote again on April 18 and pleaded with the president that Arkansas is 'in dire need of federal assistance.'
'The severe storms and tornadoes that occurred on March 14 and 15, 2025, produced catastrophic impacts across the state. The sheer magnitude of this event resulted in overwhelming amounts of debris, widespread destruction to homes and businesses, the tragic loss of three lives, and injuries to many others,' Sanders said in the letter, the Arkansas Times reports.
She described how a second wave of severe weather hit Arkansas less than three weeks later.
'Given the cumulative impact of these events, federal assistance is essential to help our communities recover,' Sanders said.
The plea for help marks a significant departure from statements Sanders made in 2023.
'As long as I am your governor, the meddling hand of big government creeping down from Washington DC will be stopped cold at the Mississippi River,' she wrote in a post on X in January 2023.
Still, the Biden administration swiftly allocated federal funds to support Arkansas when storms that same month killed five people.
During the gubernatorial race, Sanders campaigned for the 'right to be free of socialism and tyranny.'
Trump has floated abolishing the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which responds to all kinds of natural disasters and other emergencies across the nation, and leave the task of responding to emergencies up to individual state governments. Trump and his Department of Government Efficiency led by Elon Musk have been looking for ways to slash the federal budget by reducing programs and staffing.
'You know what? If they get hit with a tornado or something, let Oklahoma fix it ... and then the federal government can help them out with the money,' Trump said in January. 'FEMA is getting in the way of everything. And the Democrats actually use FEMA not to help North Carolina. It makes no sense.'
Before she asked Trump for a handout, Sanders backed Musk's cost-cutting efforts and said her state was doing the same.
'What @elonmusk is doing with DOGE is a game changer,' Sanders said in a post on the billionaire's X platform at the end of February. 'Arkansas did the same thing and uncovered hundreds of millions of dollars in waste and inefficiencies and I know @DOGE is going to find even more.'
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