President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Rep. Elise Stefanik to serve as his ambassador to the United Nations, picking a loyal ally with little foreign policy experience to represent the U.S. at the international organization. It is his first selection that will require Senate confirmation. Stefanik, 40, who serves as House Republican Conference Chair, has long been one of Trump's most loyal allies in the House, and was among those discussed as a potential vice presidential choice. She saw her profile rise after her aggressive questioning of a trio of university presidents over antisemitism on their campuses led to two of their resignations – a performance Trump repeatedly praised. One area of foreign policy that Stefanik has been vocal about is Israel. Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, Stefanik has focused much of her attention on the United Nations, accusing the world body and international organizations of antisemitism for their criticism of Israel's war against Hamas. Last month she called for "complete reassessment" of U.S. funding for the United Nations, while helping push for the blocking of American support for the Palestinian relief agency UNRWA.
She will also come face-to-face almost daily in the U.N. Security Council with the ambassadors of Russia and China whose countries are now strongly allied and looking warily at a second Trump presidency – and sometimes with their counterparts from North Korea and Iran.
Stefanik will succeed U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, a career diplomat and former assistant secretary of state for Africa who has held the job through the entire Biden administration and has been a member of his Cabinet. Stefanik also will be a member of Trump's Cabinet, he said in the statement.
In Trump’s first administration, he chose former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, who had little foreign experience except for some trade missions, for the U.N. post. She resigned after two years and then challenged Trump for the GOP nomination. Haley was succeeded by then U.S. ambassador to Canada Kelly Craft, wife of a Kentucky coal magnate, who in 2023 was unsuccessful in her bid for the GOP nomination for governor of the state.
John Bolton, a former U.S. national security adviser under Trump and ambassador to the U.N. during the Bush administration, told The Associated Press that he sees Stefanik as the 2024 version of Haley.
“She wants to run for president in 2028. She realizes she has no foreign policy experience so what better way than to become U.N. ambassador,†Bolton said. “She stays two years, and then away we go.â€