Trump nominates former Fox News anchor as US envoy to UN

Washington, December 7 

President Donald Trump Friday nominated chief State Department spokeswoman and a former Fox News journalist Heather Nauert as US’ next envoy to the UN to replace the outgoing Indian-American Nikki Haley.

Trump said at the White House that “Heather Nauert will be nominated for the ambassador to the United Nations”.

In October, Haley announced that she was leaving the post by the end of the year. The 46-year-old former South Carolina governor has served nearly two years in the post. She is the first Indian-American ever appointed to a Cabinet position in any US presidential administration.

Nauert is expected to be quizzed on her qualifications to be America’s top diplomat to the UN by Senate Democrats and could face a contentious confirmation hearing. She needs only a simple majority vote to be elevated to the new role. Nauert is an unorthodox choice, given her little experience in government or foreign policy before she took up the role at the state department.

Nauert brings relatively little experience in foreign policy to the post, having been a television personality. Past ambassadors to the United Nations have either been diplomats and international scholars or prominent politicians such as senators, House members, a Supreme Court justice or, in Haley’s case, a governor, US media noted.

He named John Bolton, a former UN ambassador who was a Fox contributor, as his national security adviser and Bill Shine, a former Fox co-president, as his deputy White House chief of staff in charge of communications. — PTI

Heather Nauert’s rise and rise

• She was made the state department spokeswoman in April 2017, her first government position. This year, after former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was fired, she was named the acting undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs.
• Prior to that, Nauert, worked for Fox News from 1998 to 2005 and after two years, during which she worked for the ABC, returned to Fox in 2007.

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