Trump to Pick Nauert to Replace Haley as UN Ambassador, Sources Say

President Donald Trump has settled on State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert to replace departing United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Nauert, 48, is an unusual choice for the UN role given that she had little experience in government or foreign policy before joining the administration in April 2017 after several years as an anchor and correspondent for Fox News, including on the “Fox and Friends” show watched by Trump. Haley also lacked foreign policy experience when she took the UN posting, but she had twice been elected governor of South Carolina.

Nevertheless, Nauert’s candidacy had the strong support of Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, who came to trust her as a reliable voice and advocate for Trump’s agenda. It was a stark turnaround from the era of Pompeo’s predecessor, Rex Tillerson, who shut her out from his inner circle. She had threatened to quit several times under Tillerson but, thanks partly to her alliance with Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, and her husband Jared Kushner, she ended up outlasting her former boss.

“Nauert is a very good public operator, and should do a professional job presenting U.S. policy at the UN,” Richard Gowan, a senior fellow at the United Nations University’s Center for Policy Research, said in an email. “It is less clear that she has the experience to hammer out hard deals with China and Russia over problems like Iran and North Korea.”

Nauert has accepted the job and her nomination will be announced as soon as Friday, said a person familiar with the matter. Nauert didn’t answer repeated calls and emails seeking comment.

G-20 Performance
White House aides believe Nauert’s key assets include strong communications skills and a fluency with the the Trump White House, particularly in understanding the thinking of the president and secretary of state. Trump was also impressed with her performance at the Group of 20 summit in Argentina last week, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Nauert won’t face an easy confirmation battle given her lack of experience and the likelihood that she’ll be asked to answer for the Trump administration’s scorn for international bodies, including the UN. In a speech in Brussels this week, Pompeo made his doubts about the organization clear, asking, “Does it continue to serve its mission faithfully?”

Lowering Expectations
Among its flaws, he cited peacekeeping missions that “drag on for decades,” climate treaties that he said serve only to redistribute wealth and what he called its anti-Israel bias.

“Pompeo’s Brussels speech trashing the UN this week lowered our expectations for U.S. policy at the UN, whoever is ambassador,” Gowan said. “It looks probable that the U.S. will aim to marginalize the UN for the rest of Trump’s term, in contrast to the Haley era.”

Haley surprised White House officials in October when she said she would resign by the end of year, citing the need for a break after two terms as governor and two years at the UN. Her trusted relationship with Trump was clear when he hosted an Oval Office farewell for her and she vowed to campaign for him in 2020.

The president picked Nauert after considering other potential nominees including former White House aide Dina Powell, ambassador to Canada Kelly Craft, former U.S. Senate candidate John James of Michigan and ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell -- who was a favorite of National Security Adviser John Bolton.

Senate Confirmation
If Nauert wins Senate confirmation, she will face a broad agenda at the UN topped by the need to maintain international sanctions on North Korea. Haley rallied global support for tougher measures in 2017, when Pyongyang ramped up its ballistic missile and weapons testing, but there has been increasing pressure from other countries to ease up on the restrictions since Trump’s meeting with Kim Jong Un in June.

She’ll also take up the administration’s efforts to defend Israel at the UN and counter what Haley called the organization’s bias against the Jewish state. In a sign of the difficulties the administration has had, the UN General Assembly on Thursday rejected a U.S.-sponsored resolution condemning Hamas, the Islamist group that has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007.

A key question with Nauert will be whether the president keeps the UN envoy job as a Cabinet-level position, or downgrades it to report through Pompeo, as other administrations have sometimes done. Haley successfully argued for a Cabinet-level post and wielded broad influence, carving out her own authority separate from Tillerson.

Bolton-Pompeo
When Tillerson was secretary of state, Haley took the lead on several key issues, including a decision to cut funding to the Palestinians, and delivered speeches at the United Nations and elsewhere without the secretary’s approval. But Nauert may serve a less dominant role given Pompeo’s increased assertiveness. Bolton, who had his own stint as UN ambassador under President George W. Bush, is also exercising more influence over foreign policy.

At the State Department, Nauert scaled back what had previously been daily news conferences in previous administrations, sometimes making them just once-a-week events. She was widely criticized when she joined Pompeo on an emergency trip to Saudi Arabia in October following the killing of columnist Jamal Khashoggi. The somber mission appeared to be forgotten as Nauert posted a tourist-style photograph of herself smiling in Riyadh.

Nauert has indicated a priority for her is the plight of Myanmar’s Rohingya minority. She traveled to the region last year, eventually joining Tillerson when he visited the country’s capital for the day. But she was shut out from his entourage, and didn’t take part in any of his meetings.

“In the absence of any actual diplomatic experience I suppose it’s reassuring to UN supporters that she will arrive with no particular personal agenda,” said Loren DeJonge Schulman, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security. But in a reference to Nauert’s background as a spokeswoman, she added, “It’s not a role for merely reading talking points.”