Donald Trump Suggests Ivanka For UN Ambassador Role But Fears Nepotism Accusations
President Donald Trump spoke through his favored medium of Twitter on Friday in support of his daughter Ivanka’s credentials as a potential replacement for Nikki Haley as the ambassador to the United Nations. While he seemed enthusiastic about his daughter’s ability on the world stage, Trump did add that he knew the appointment would cause “chants of Nepotism,” according to reports from Business Insider.
In the tweet, Trump wrote, “everyone wants Ivanka Trump to be the new United Nations Ambassador,” and that “she would be incredible, but I can already hear the chants of Nepotism!”
Ivanka is already a part of the Trump administration as a senior White House advisor and has become one of the prominent candidates after Haley’s surprise resignation on Tuesday. While Trump has been quite positive about nominating his daughter for the role, Ivanka denying any interest in the role through a tweet on the day of Haley’s resignation.
“It is an honor to serve in the White House alongside so many great colleagues and I know that the President will nominate a formidable replacement for Ambassador Haley,” said Ivanka in her tweet. “That replacement will not be me.”
Nepotism has been a common accusation against the Trump administration, in particular with Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner, who are both senior advisors in the administration despite neither having any experience in government.
Haley brought attention to the couple as her potential successor when she lauded them both with praise in her resignation letter.
Trump again floats Ivanka as potentially 'incredible' UN ambassador but says he can 'already hear the chants of Nepotism!' https://t.co/4RyPEOcog3
— Insider Politics (@insiderpolitics) October 12, 2018
“I can’t say enough good things about Jared and Ivanka,” wrote Haley in her letter, adding that the couple “do a lot of things behind the scenes that I wish more people knew about.”
Twitter users also noticed that Ivanka began to follow several national-defense related Twitter accounts in the day before Haley’s resignation, including the accounts of the National Security Agency and the Deputy Secretary of Defense.
When speaking to reporters after the resignation, Trump said that he would find a replacement for Haley within the next two weeks. In the early days, there has been a wide range of potential nominees with Trump’s former deputy national security adviser, Dina Powell, and the American ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, at separate points both looking like favorites.
The Inquisitr reported that two other candidates have appeared as legitimate challengers on Friday, with Nancy Brinker, the founder of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and President George W. Bush’s former ambassador to Hungary, and Kay Bailey Hutchison, the former Texas senator who is currently serving as Trump’s ambassador to NATO, both emerging as legitimate candidates.
