Trump Names South Carolina Governor as UN Envoy
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – US president-elect Donald Trump Wednesday named South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, a former critic who has little foreign policy experience, to be the next US ambassador to the United Nations at a time of uncertainty over America’s international role under his presidency.
Haley, one of two women chosen for a job in Trump’s Cabinet, is “a proven deal-maker, and we look to be making plenty of deals. She will be a great leader representing us on the world stage,” the Republican president-elect said in a statement, Reuters reported on Thursday.
The 44-year-old daughter of Indian immigrants, she represents what some Republicans hope could be the new face of their party: a younger, more diverse generation of leaders.
Haley took Trump strongly to task during the presidential campaign over his harsh rhetoric about illegal immigration and for not speaking forcefully enough against white supremacists.
The choice of Haley may be aimed at countering criticism of Trump’s divisive comments about immigrants and minorities, as well as accusations of sexism during his election campaign.
Haley said she had accepted the offer and would remain governor pending her confirmation to the Cabinet-level post by the US Senate.
“When the president believes you have a major contribution to make to the welfare of our nation, and to our nation’s standing in the world, that is a calling that is important to heed,” she said in a statement.
Haley’s job may include reassuring allies worried about some of Trump’s campaign rhetoric, including his pledge to build a wall along the US-Mexican border to curb illegal immigration, his promise to review trade agreements and his suggestion that he would push NATO partners to pay more for their own defense.
Trump wants a better relationship with Russia, a permanent member of the UN Security Council. He has antagonized China, another major power at the United Nations, with his rhetoric on trade and territorial disputes in the South China Sea.
Haley would succeed Obama’s UN envoy, Samantha Power, a foreign policy expert before she took the job. In contrast, Haley, a state lawmaker before becoming governor, has little experience in international relations.
Trump transition team spokesman Jason Miller played up Haley’s foreign trade experience as a governor.
“She’s done a fantastic job with the state of South Carolina, in helping to improve the economy. That included a number of overseas trade and business recruitment missions,” he said.
Trump Wednesday also picked wealthy Republican donor and school choice advocate Betsy DeVos to lead the Education Department, saying she would “break the bureaucracy that is holding our children back.”
DeVos, a billionaire former chair of the Michigan Republican Party, has long pushed for a larger role for private education.
The National Education Association, the country’s largest union, condemned DeVos’ nomination. “She has consistently pushed a corporate agenda to privatize, deprofessionalize and impose cookie-cutter solutions to public education,” NEA President Lily Eskelsen Garcia said.
