Arkansas governor embraces Trump, calls for AI guardrails in new book

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders praises President Donald Trump’s leadership in a book released a week after Republicans suffered heavy losses in a midterm widely seen as a rebuke of Trump by voters.

But Sanders, who won reelection last week and is considered a potential 2028 presidential hopeful, distanced herself from the president by calling for “commonsense” guardrails on artificial intelligence.

Sanders’ latest book, “Unapologetic: Clarity and Conviction in a World Gone Crazy,” was released Tuesday and comes out as Republicans are grappling with the aftermath of an election where they lost control of the U.S. House, Senate and a majority of governorships.

Sanders, who was first elected in 2022, won a second term by double digits though Republicans lost control of the supermajority in the state House needed to pass most budget bills without Democratic support.

The book covers Sanders’ election and first term as Arkansas governor. She also writes about her family and Christian faith, regularly quoting the Bible and authors such as C.S. Lewis. 

Here’s a look at what’s inside the new book:

Governor praises Trump’s ‘bold, new leadership’

It’s no surprise that Trump plays a prominent role in Sanders’ book. The governor served as White House press secretary during his first term and touted his endorsement when she first ran for governor.

Sanders praises Trump’s actions on policies like immigration and indicates she decided to run for governor with his leadership style in mind.

“I love Arkansas, but I wasn’t blind to the problems our state faced, and I thought that the best way to fix those issues would be through bold, new leadership, like what President Trump had brought to America,” she writes.

Sanders urges caution, skepticism on AI

There’s some daylight between Sanders and Trump on the issue of artificial intelligence.

Though Trump has dismissed the calls for more guardrails around AI, Sanders highlights her opposition to a provision of the One Big Beautiful Bill tax and spending cut law signed last year that would have prevented states from regulating artificial intelligence. The measure was stripped from the legislation following Sanders’ and other Republicans’ objections.

Sanders, who has signed into law measures limiting youths’ access to social media, wrote that conservatives should be skeptical of Big Tech on AI.

“President Trump is right that the United States must win the AI race against China to survive — we have no choice,” she writes. “But a race against China cannot be a race to the bottom that enriches billionaires in Silicon Valley and leaves the rest of America behind.”

Opponents of prison plan ‘coalition of the unwilling’

The governor devotes several pages of the book to her fight with members of the Board of Corrections and some lawmakers over her efforts to build a new prison in Franklin County.

Sanders put the 3,000-bed prison project on hold after facing resistance from locals along with members of the Legislature from both parties.

Sanders expresses frustration that she faced opposition from members of her own party on the prison plan, labeling them and Democratic opponents the “coalition of the unwilling.”

“I expected I’d be fighting the left and the ‘defund the police’ crazies to make our communities safer, but I had no idea that some of the fiercest opposition would come from within my own party,” she writes.

Fears about impact from cancer diagnosis

Sanders opens the book with a revealing look at the thyroid cancer she was diagnosed with in 2022, just a couple months before she was elected governor. Sanders underwent surgery and soon returned to the campaign trail after being declared cancer-free.

But, in the book, she reveals that doctors warned her before her surgery that some patients experience damage to their vocal chords or changes to their voice. The damage didn’t occur, but Sanders writes about her reaction to that possibility.

“After all the reassurances from my doctors about my good prognosis, I was now finding out that even if I beat cancer, I might experience long-term damage that could derail my career,” she writes. 

Her State of the Union rebuttal could have been darker

Shortly after taking office in 2023, Sanders was asked to deliver Republicans’ response to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address.

Sanders accepted, but after some hesitation.

“Few Republicans who’d given the State of the Union response had risen to the task, and a not insignificant number had failed miserably,” she writes.

Sanders’ speech painted a bleak picture of life under Biden, saying his administration was hijacked “by the radical left.”

But Sanders says that only came after she and First Gentleman Bryan Sanders revised a first draft she wasn’t happy with. 

“The first draft was heavy on policy. It was too dark and depressing and didn’t sound like me at all,” she writes. “The speechwriter I’d contracted with reminded me, ‘Sarah, you only have one job: Eviscerate Joe Biden.’”

Sanders writes that she and the unnamed speechwriter agreed to part ways after she revised her speech into the one she ultimately delivered.