Trump to Nominate Rep. Elise Stefanik as UN Ambassador

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) arrives to speak during the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Md., on Feb. 23, 2024. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

President-elect Donald Trump announced on Nov. 11 that he will nominate House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

“Elise is an incredibly strong, tough, and smart America First fighter,” Trump said in a statement.

Trump said over the weekend that former Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley, along with former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, will not be in the administration.

With the GOP having control of the Senate, Stefanik is likely to be confirmed.

In a statement on social media platform X, Stefanik said she was “truly honored” and “deeply humbled” to be selected.

“President Trump’s historic landslide election has given hope to the American people and is a reminder that brighter days are ahead—both at home and abroad. America continues to be the beacon of the world, but we expect and must demand that our friends and allies be strong partners in the peace we seek,” she said.

Stefanik has been critical of the U.N., saying in September that it has “anti-Semitic rot.”

“American taxpayers have no interest in continuing to fund an organization that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have allowed to rot with antisemitism,” she said in an Oct. 16 statement.

“They must take the names of any country supporting this blatantly immoral effort and make clear the position of the United States—the UN’s single largest source of funding.”

Stefanik has called for defunding the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), saying in a Nov. 4 statement that it “instills anti-Semitic hate in Palestinians, houses weapons for terrorists, and steals the aid they are supposed to be distributing.”

The New York Republican was the first member of Congress to rise to prominence as a defender of Trump during the 45th president’s first impeachment in 2019 after he was accused of calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to ask him to investigate President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, in exchange for U.S. military assistance.

Stefanik was first elected from New York’s 21st Congressional District in 2014 at the age of 30, becoming the youngest woman elected to Congress.

She was elected as House GOP conference chairwoman in 2021, succeeding former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.). Her foreign policy experience includes serving on the House Select Committee on Intelligence and working at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a hawkish Washington think tank. She worked on the Domestic Policy Council in the Bush administration.

Stefanik, who is on the House Education and Workforce Committee, has been in the spotlight lately because of her criticism of college and university presidents’ responses to anti-Semitism on their campuses in the aftermath of the Hamas terrorist group’s attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. The presidents of Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, and Rutgers have since resigned.

With Stefanik’s upcoming departure, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul will have to call a special election no earlier than 70 days and no later than 80 days from when the seat, which is safely Republican, becomes empty.

During Trump’s presidency, the United States withdrew from the U.N. Human Rights Council, the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the World Health Organization. It also ended U.S. funding for the UNRWA.

Haley, along with her successor, Kelly Craft, was known to speak out in support of Israel at the U.N.