This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.
President Donald Trump has formally submitted the nomination of Kelly Craft to serve as the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, a position that has been open for months.
Trump in February announced that he intended to nominate Craft, who is currently the U.S. ambassador to Canada, to the UN position.
I am pleased to announce that Kelly Knight Craft, our current Ambassador to Canada, is being nominated to be United States Ambassador to the United Nations….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 22, 2019
Craft was a member of the U.S. delegation to the UN General Assembly during the administration of President George W. Bush.
She is the wife of coal billionaire Joe Craft. Both supported Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016 and are major donors to the Republican Party.
If confirmed by the Senate, she will succeed Nikki Haley, who resigned and left the post at the end of 2018. Craft was unanimously confirmed by the Senate to be ambassador to Canada in August 2017.
Trump’s first pick to replace Haley, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert, withdrew over the weekend for what she said were family reasons. Democrats had complained that Nauert lacked international diplomatic policy experience.
Jonathan Cohen, a career diplomat who had been Haley’s deputy, has been serving as acting UN ambassador since January.
