UNITED NATIONS: US President-elect Donald Trump has tapped Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, a longtime ally with little foreign policy experience, to serve as ambassador to the United Nations, a Trump transition official announced Monday.
Ms. Stefanik, 40. is Trump’s first Cabinet appointment for his second term in the White House.
“I am honored to nominate Chairwoman Elise Stefanik to serve in my Cabinet as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. Elise is an incredibly strong, tough, and smart America First fighter,” Trump said in a statement Monday.
At UN Headquarters in New York, UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric, responding to a question about her appointment, said, “We will work constructively with the Permanent Representative of the United States just like we do with every other country.”
Stefanik, 40, has been a staunch defender of Israel and a day before last week’s presidential election she had called for the defunding of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) alleging it has been infiltrated by Hamas.
Ms. 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, the Trump transition official said.
In Trump’s first administration, he chose former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, who also had little foreign policy experience except for some trade missions, for the U.N. post. She resigned after two years and then challenged unsuccessfully Trump for the Republican nomination.
(Born as Nimrata Randhawa to Sikh parents who migrated from Indian Punjab, she has since converted to Christianity, but occasionally goes to Sikh gurduwaras at her parents’ request.
