Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders begged President Donald Trump to reconsider his rejection of her request to reconsider disaster aid funds after tornados destroyed her state last month.
The former press secretary of the White House of Trump wrote to Trump in March after storms destroyed the state and killed three people.
Sanders, who often spar with journalists in the press room as the White House press secretary during Trump's first government, explained a state of emergency and asked her former boss to explain a large disaster so that the state could secure a federal hand -out.
But the Trump government rejected the request and said that the damage could be handled by the state.
In an appeal to Trump, her former boss, Sanders and the Arkansas Division of Emergency Management again wrote on April 18 and the president begged that Arkansas “urgently needs federal help.”
Government Sarah Huckabee Sanders asked President Donald Trump for federal help after devastating tornadoes in Arkansas. He rejected her request. (AFP via Getty Images)
“The serious storms and tornadoes that took place on 14 and 15 March 2025 produced catastrophic effects throughout the state. The enormous size of this event resulted in overwhelming amounts of debris, widespread destruction for houses and companies, the tragic loss of three lives and injuries to many others,” the letters, “” Arkansas Times Reports.
She described how a second wave of heavy weather Arkansas met less than three weeks later.
“Given the cumulative impact of these events, federal help is essential to help recover our communities,” said Sanders.
The plea for help marks a significant deviation from Sanders statements made in 2023.
“As long as I am your Governor, the meddling hand of the big government crawls from Washington DC, cold at the Mississippi River,” she wrote in a post on X in January 2023.
Nevertheless, the BIDEN administration quickly assigned federal funds to support Arkansas when Stormen killed five people that same month.
Sanders, who came to Trump last year on the campaign track, said earlier that she would stop the 'interference hand of the Great Government' in Arkansas. She was called for 'Hypocrisis' in 2023 (Getty Images)
During the Gubernatorial breed, Sanders campaigned for “the right to be free from socialism and tyranny.”
Trump has abolished the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which responds to all kinds of natural disasters and other emergency situations throughout the country, and leaves the task to respond to emergency situations to individual governments. Trump and his efficiency of the government led by Elon Musk have searched for ways to lower the federal budget by reducing programs and staff.
“You know what? If they are hit by a tornado or something, Oklahoma lets it repair … and then the federal government can help them with the money,” Trump said in January. “Fema stands 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 hand-out, Sanders supported the cost-saving efforts of Musk and said her state did the same.
“What @elonmusk does with doge is a game change,” said Sanders in a post on the X platform of the billionaire at the end of February. “Arkansas did the same and discovered hundreds of millions of dollars in waste and inefficiencies and I know that @dgee will find even more.”
