Outside the Beltway

Trump Picks Kelly Knight Craft As U.N. Ambassador

President Trump has selected Kelly Knight Craft, the current Ambassador to Canada, to serve as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.

Doug Mataconis · Saturday, February 23, 2019 · 4 comments

After seeing its initial selection to replace Nikki Haley as Ambassador to the United States, State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert, withdraw from contention due to problems with the payment of withholding taxes for a nanny, President Trump has selected current Ambassador to candidate Kelly Night Craft as his appointee to the position:

President Donald Trump on Friday night announced he will nominate current Ambassador to Canada Kelly Knight Craft as his next Ambassador to the United Nations.

“Kelly has done an outstanding job representing our Nation and I have no doubt that, under her leadership, our Country will be represented at the highest level,” Trump wrote on Twitter.

Here’s the President’s Tweet:

….Kelly has done an outstanding job representing our Nation and I have no doubt that, under her leadership, our Country will be represented at the highest level. Congratulations to Kelly and her entire family!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 22, 2019

Prior to this appointment, Kelly Knight Craft had served as an alternate delegate to the United Nations under President George W. Bush, during which time her primary responsibility was advising the then Ambassador on U.S. policy in Africa. During the time she served in this position, which was after current National Security Adviser John Bolton had left office, the position of U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations was held by Alejandro Daniel Wolffand Zalmay Khalilzad. Craft is better known, though, for being a top fundraiser for Republican candidates for office along with her husband Joe Craft. Exactly how that qualifies her for a position such as Ambassador to the United Nations, or Canada for that matter, is your guess as well as mine, although the fact that she has some previous experience as a member of the staff to the American Ambassador to the U.N. provides at least some argument in her favor and perhaps the experience necessary to fill the position.

In any case, absent the kind of problems that Neuart encountered, it appears that Craft is likely to be confirmed rather easily given Republican control of the Senate and the fact that the Senate’s rules only require a simple majority to confirm Presidential appointees means that she is likely to be confirmed easily. What kind of Ambassador she’ll be is something only time will be able to tell us.