Sarah Huckabee Sanders' Most Humiliating Moments As Trump's Press Secretary

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Sarah Huckabee Sanders wasn't a regular White House press secretary. And considering all the cringey moments from her 2-year tenure, she arguably wasn't a cool White House press secretary either. For instance, during a press briefing right before Thanksgiving 2017, Sanders read out some things that she was grateful for and earnestly encouraged the gathered members of the press to do the same before they asked her a question. The request made the awkwardness in the press room go from zero to a 100 as, naturally, nobody was prepared to get personal during their workday. As a result, nearly everybody simply expressed gratitude for their family and swiftly moved on. 

A similar cringey atmosphere settled over the White House press briefing room in July 2017 when Sanders read out a letter from a child named Pickle. In the letter, addressed to Donald Trump, the young boy proudly detailed how he had a MAGA hat cake for his birthday, expressed his love for the Republican leader, and wondered why others didn't share the same sentiment. Surprisingly, the letter also had some inquiries that stroked Trump's ego. 

The young boy asked about the former "Apprentice" host's wealth as well as the size of the White House. Many were understandably left wondering if "Pickle" was a real child or if Sanders had made him up to distract from other pressing issues that would've been much harder to discuss. Although the Washington Post later confirmed that Pickle was a real kid, it was undoubtedly an extremely embarrassing rumor for a White House press secretary to have to face. Unfortunately, it paled in comparison to some of her other shenanigans. 

After a June 2017 tweet from her personal account, Sarah Huckabee Sanders went from being labeled a liar to being called completely nonsensical. There were no thoughts or feelings attached to the message, just a series of seemingly random emojis that didn't correlate with the additional numbers, letters, and punctuation marks interspersed here and there. While the rest of the world was left scratching their heads trying to decipher the meaning of the bizarre post, one person on X, formerly known as Twitter, quipped, "This is the most coherent statement to come from the Trump administration." After over an hour, the White House staffer finally came up with an explanation for the tweet that had real "My dog ate my homework" vibes. 

⚓️🚥🚥🚥🚥⚓️🚥🚥🚥🚥🚥🚥🚥🗺🗺🗺🗺🗺🗺🏰🗺🗺🏰🏰🏰🚦 :/9//&🗿🛩⛩🏚
#🚦lolaklkk🚥🚦⛲️🚝🚦🚞🚢🚂

— Sarah H. Sanders 45 Archived (@SHSanders45) June 10, 2017

The Arkansas governor clarified that her son had taken over her phone and tweeted on her behalf. However, some commentators had a hard time believing that a 3-year-old could have loaded up X, and then found the correct buttons to write and post the tweet, all while staying under the character limit. Meanwhile, others were baffled about why a high-ranking government official had left her phone unlocked in the first place. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like Sanders learned her lesson from the embarrassing gaffe. 

In January 2018, she took to her official government X account to complain about how her 2-year-old had been ordering Batman toys through Amazon Echo by repeatedly yelling the DC hero's name. While one person disproved her claim through a video, another snarked, "It's not nice to refer to Trump as 'your 2 year old' and you should probably tell him to stop yelling Batman in the Oval Office."

In June 2018, Sarah Huckabee Sanders bafflingly decided to put a private humiliating moment on blast for the whole world. Taking to the official White House press secretary X account, Sanders shared that her MAGA cred had gotten her booted from the Red Hen restaurant in Virginia. In addition to stating that she had never and would never similarly disrespect someone due to differing political views, Sanders argued, "[The owner's] actions say far more about her than about me." 

Speaking to The Washington Post, the Red Hen's owner, Stephanie Wilkinson, asserted that she had no doubt she had done right by her LGBTQIA+ staff members by politely asking the Republican politician to leave her restaurant. Wilkinson elaborated, "We just felt there are moments in time when people need to live their convictions. This appeared to be one." Her decision to defend her employees meant more, considering that the eatery had to deal with loads of negativity in the aftermath. Still, the embarrassment that the Arkansas governor suffered from the incident likely only worsened after her initial revelation. 

In a series of tweets, Walter Shaub, the former director of the Office of Government Ethics, mused that Sanders had possibly even committed an ethical violation by using her press secretary social media account "to condemn a private business for personal reasons," (via The Hill). He added that she sought "to coerce business by using her office to get public to pressure it." According to him, the controversial politician had also gone against the strict endorsement bans with her public disavowing. Worse, Shaub started out by tweeting that he was already aware that Sanders wasn't the least bit concerned about ethics. 

There is perhaps nothing more embarrassing for a White House press secretary than having to admit that they lied to the media. And Sarah Huckabee Sanders found herself in that very position in 2019. During a press briefing in May 2017, the Republican politician explained Donald Trump's decision to fire FBI director James Comey, by reasoning, "The rank and file of the FBI had lost confidence in their director," (via YouTube). When a reporter pushed back against her claim and pointed out that Comey was popular among his fellow FBI officials, Sanders insisted that they had heard the contrary from "countless" agents. 

According to special counsel Robert Mueller's 2019 report, the Trump staffer went back on her words during questioning. "Sanders acknowledged to investigators that her comments were not founded on anything," the report read, per Politico. Moreover, the Arkansas governor explained that her assertions during the 2017 press briefing were the result of a "slip of the tongue" that happened "in the heat of the moment." Obviously, not a good look for someone whose whole job is being precise and truthful under pressure.

During an April 2019 Fox News interview, Sanders clarified that her admissions to Mueller's team were limited to the use of the word "countless." The "Speaking for Myself" author maintained that many members of the FBI were indeed unhappy with Comey, similar to the president. Notably, the Mueller report also found a handful of other instances of Sanders lying during her 2-year tenure. Suffice it to say that it brought about some of Sanders' most controversial moments that she wishes everyone would just forget about.

After the 2018 White House Correspondents' Dinner, Sarah Huckabee Sanders proved that she was more thin-skinned than even Donald Trump. During comedian Michelle Wolf's routine, she followed in the steps of previous performers and roasted the attendees. Wolf, who is one of the many people who clearly don't like Sanders, dissed her by joking, "I think she's very resourceful, but she burns facts and then she uses that ash to create a perfect smokey eye. Like maybe she's born with it, maybe it's lies." This clearly didn't sit well with the White House staffer as she sat through the routine with a pained look on her face.

Surprisingly, a Trump family member added salt to Sanders' wounds. Eric Trump liked a tweet entitled, "Michelle Wolf destroys Sarah Huckabee Sanders at #WHCD." The businessman went on to like another tweet appreciating the Republican politician's response to the scathing jokes alongside an additional one about his father slamming Wolf. Nonetheless, it was still an embarrassing moment for a loyal Trump family supporter like Sanders. The Republican politician likely felt similar feelings when she went to the 2018 Winter Olympics with Ivanka Trump. 

Before the pair's meal with then-South Korean president Moon Jae-in, Ivanka was honored with a pair of gorgeous ruby-red slippers. Sanders wasn't given the special treatment and only received a pair of regular leather slippers. At the actual games, the Arkansas governor was photographed distracting herself with a bag of chips while Ivanka and former Olympian Angela Ruggiero had a nice little chat. Notably, in 2025, Sanders accidentally put Ivanka's rumored plastic surgery on blast.

In November 2018, Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced that the White House was temporarily revoking CNN reporter Jim Acosta's press pass for "placing his hands" on an intern (via NPR). The "Speaking for Myself" author took to the official press secretary's X account to post a video that documented the alleged incident, which occurred while the reporter was questioning Donald Trump's inflammatory statements about Mexico. The muted clip showed the veteran journalist hitting his hand against the intern's elbow as she tried to grab the microphone from him. However, NBC's unmuted video from the event painted a different picture.

We stand by our decision to revoke this individual's hard pass. We will not tolerate the inappropriate behavior clearly documented in this video. pic.twitter.com/T8X1Ng912y

— Kayleigh McEnany 45 Archived (@PressSec45) November 8, 2018

In their version, it seems more like Acosta was just gesturing with his hand when the intern reached for the microphone. Although his hand did briefly make contact with her elbow, it didn't follow the karate chop motion seen in Sanders' video. And Acosta even politely told the staffer, "Pardon me, ma'am," after realizing he had touched her. After watching both clips, people started speculating that the Trump staffer had posted the edited footage to justify the controversial decision. As the backlash poured in, the Arkansas governor justified their decision to revoke his pass, while doubling down in the process. 

She rationalized, "The question is did the reporter make contact or not? The video is clear, he did. We stand by our statement," (via CNN). It seems Sanders eventually grew tired of putting out one fire after another. In 2019, she set the White House record for the longest time spent without an official press briefing. After a whopping 94 days of not doing her job, we finally learned that the politician had quit.