Trump nominates Heather Nauert as US ambassador to UN
December 7, 2018
President Donald Trump has nominated US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert to be the United States' next ambassador to the United Nations.
If confirmed by the US Senate, Nauert, 48, would replace outgoing Ambassador Nikki Haley, who announced in October that she would step down from the post at the end of 2018.
Read more: Opinion: Nikki Haley, Donald Trump's global enabler, was no moderate
Trump told reporters in November that Nauert, who does not have any prior political or policy-making experience, was "under very serious consideration" for the position.
"She's excellent, she's been with us a long time, she's been a supporter for a long time," he said at the time.
Trump is reportedly weighing other staff changes before the end of the year, including replacing White House chief of staff John Kelly.
Nauert joined the State Department in April 2017, after spending more than 20 years as a journalist for ABC and Fox News. She worked under two secretaries of state, Rex Tillerson and current boss Mike Pompeo, and was designated acting undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs from March to October 2018.
Haley has been the US ambassador to the UN for the entirety of Trump's presidency. During her tenure, the US has pulled out of the UN Human Rights Council and has cut funding for the UN's refugee agency.
dv/sms (AP, AFP, Reuters)