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Melania Trump's spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham will be the next White House press secretary, the first lady announced Tuesday.

Grisham succeeds Sarah Sanders, whose last day at the White House is Friday. The outgoing press secretary is moving back to Arkansas, where the president is pushing her to run for governor.

The president did not immediately issue a statement on Grisham's appointment. It was his wife who said in a tweet that her trusted aide was switching jobs.

'She has been with us since 2015 - @potus & I can think of no better person to serve the Administration & our country. Excited to have Stephanie working for both sides of the @WhiteHouse,' the First Lady tweeted, upstaging her own husband. 

The president said later in the Oval Office that Grisham is 'very talented' and beloved by the first lady and her colleagues. 

He claimed that everyone he asked, including the competition, said Grisham is the best person for the job. 

'Done a fantastic job. The first lady loves her. I think she's been, you know, just incredible. She's very talented,' he said.

Melania Trump's spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham will be the next White House press secretary, the first lady announced Tuesday

The first lady upstaged her husband, announcing the promotion of her senior aide 

Grisham had been a deputy White House press secretary at the start of the administration. She quickly moved to the East Wing to work with FLOTUS

Donald Trump said Monday that was considering 'four or five' different people to replace outgoing Press Secretary Sarah Sanders. He called Grisham a 'very talented' person on Tuesday in the Oval Office

The president has taken Sanders' departure harder than other aides leaving, calling her a 'warrior' and publicly expressing that he hopes she runs for governor in Arkansas

Trump had said less than 24 hours prior that he was considering four or five different candidates to replace Sanders, who said she'd be leaving the White House at the end of the month.

'Replacing Sarah is not going to be easy,' the president told The Hill during an Oval Office interview, 'a lot of people want the job. We have four or five people that really want it, very good people, very good names.' 

The president described Sanders as 'irreplaceable,' and jested that he would eventually 'move on' from her during the Monday discussion.

'Sarah has done a fantastic job, she'll be governor. She won't talk to us anymore,' he quipped, praising his exiting press secretary.

He did not name potential replacements. But Grisham was assumed to be a frontrunner alongside Principal Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley. 

Trump claimed Tuesday in the Oval, with Gidley at his side, that his top deputy recommended Grisham for the job that he'd also indicated he wanted. 

'So I offered her the job this morning and she accepted. And the first lady is very happy for her. It's a big job. It's a big job. But we think Stephanie is going to do a fantastic job. And Hogan is going to be with her. Hogan is one of the people that recommended her,' the president insisted.

Putting Gidley on the spot, he said, 'Here's Hogan. He recommended her very strongly. I said, "Hogan who do you think?" He said, "Stephanie Grisham." '

Trump announced on Twitter on June 13 that Sanders would be leaving her post at the end of June, and that same day she took the podium during a White House event to give a teary-eyed goodbye.

She thanked the president for the opportunity to serve as his spokeswoman for the last two years, and Trump kissed her on the cheek and then they embraced. Sanders has served in the Trump White House since his inauguration, and previously was a top deputy in the press office.

'She's done an incredible job. We've been through a lot together. She's tough and she's good,' Trump gushed in remarks before she took the podium to speak, adding that she is a 'warrior.' 

He gave a similar tribute to Sanders at an Orlando campaign rally, where she took the mic to praise her boss.  

One person familiar with the process told DailyMail.com in the following days that that Grisham or Gidley was likely to get Sanders' large West Wing office and her old job.

'Whomever he decides to go with, it's a very public face and gives voice to the administration and to the public, ' the person noted. 

The source said that it's up to the chief of staff and the White House press secretary with 'so much action' taking place in the West Wing to act as the president's gatekeeper and help determine 'what comes in and stay outs.'

Among the qualities that Trump was said to be considering was the 'personal connection' between himself and the person expected to disseminate his message.  

'They know my voice, and they're going to know what I want to say and how to say it,' the person said of the process.

That he settled on Grisham was no surprise to former White House press secretary Sean Spicer, who told DailyMail.com, 'She's a great pick.'

'She has both the respect of the president and first lady as well as a deep understanding of the needs of White House reporters gained through her time in the campaign, transition and first two plus years of this White House,' he said.

Trump cited those same qualities in an Oval Office appearance as he commented for the first time on Grisham's promotion.

'And I asked so many people, who do you like? A lot of people wanted the job, a lot of people wanted to do it. And I’d as people, who do you like? And so many people said Stephanie. And, she’s here, she know everybody,' he said. 'She actually gets along with the media very well, as you know. A lot of folks in the media like her very much.'  

Sanders spoke from the podium June 13 during a White House event the same day Trump announced she would be departing, and gave a tearful goodbye. She will leave her position at the end of June

She also spoke to a crowd of over 20,000 Trump supporters during the president's launch rally of his 2020 campaign in Orlando, Florida last week

Sanders took over pretty early in Trump's presidency after his first press secretary, Sean Spicer, was ousted. He only served for the first six months after Trump was inaugurated

Grisham was a spokeswoman for the president in 2016. She was briefly a deputy press secretary in the West Wing, where she had a first floor office, before taking the job as the fist lady's top communications aide shortly after Trump took office.  

That put her in the East Wing and out of reporters' reach. She was known, as Trump said, for having positive relationships with reporters, however, and as a zealous defender of the president's wife. 

Grisham said it was 'sad' when women who co-host 'The View' suggested the first lady doesn't want to spend time with her husband.

'I've always found it sad that a group of women spend so much time attacking another woman, whose only goal is to help children,' Grisham said at the time.

And she swatted back at Anna Wintour, when she indicated that she wouldn't want the first lady on the cover of Vogue.

'She's been there, done that long before she was first lady,' Melania's spokeswoman said.

Prior to joining forces with the Trumps, she worked in Arizona politics, most recently in the state legislature, as the spokeswoman for the then-speaker of the Arizona House.

She has two children, one of whom is still in grade school and lives with her in Washington. She described herself in a Fox 10 interview early in the administration as single mom.

Gidley did not work on the Trump campaign but had ties to the administration through Sanders, whom he worked for in the 2016 campaign before her father dropped out of the Republican race and she went to work for Trump.

He joined the White House in late 2017, less than a year into Trump's tenure. He'll remain the principal deputy press secretary, the president says.  

NOT THE GUY: Hogan Gidley, the principal deputy press secretary was passed over for the job 

As Trump mulled who he'd like to replace Sanders, the competition turned dirty. Anonymous rumors of sex, laziness and criminal behavior have spread around White House, according to the Washington Examiner.

Rumors include tales of a government spokesperson, who was thought to be a contender, putting on a face for the cameras and then exhibiting poor work ethic behind the scenes. A second individual was thought to have engaged in misconduct that could amount to a crime. There is a third that people have said sleeps with Secret Service agents.

Stories regarding Grisham also began to circulate this week, including the first lady not wanting to let her go, as she began to look like a clear favorite. A former White House official told the Examiner that the claims about Melania Trump were untrue. 

The blow that Sanders was leaving appeared to be softened for the president by the prospect of having his former spokeswoman in the Arkansas governor's mansion.

Three times since Trump announced that Sanders would be leaving the White House, he's said she should run for governor of Arkansas. She'll be returning to the state after a family vacation. She has not announced her next move.  

'If we could get her to run for governor of Arkansas, I think she'll do very well. I'm trying to get her to do that,' Trump said at his White House event of her departure. 

Although she did not appear to take the gubernatorial recommendation enthusiastically, she did not run out the possibility of serving in public office in the future.

'I've learned a long time ago never to rule anything out,' she said during a talk with reporters in her office in the West Wing. 'I do look forward to going back home.' 

Sanders is married and she and her husband Bryan have three young children.