Hair-raising world of Trump’s new man in Britain
A BILLIONAIRE American football mogul has been appointed as the next US ambassador to Britain, Donald Trump announced last night.
Continuing a tradition of the prestigious post going to a generous political donor or well-connected insider rather than a professional diplomat, Robert ‘Woody’ Johnson is a longtime Republican fundraiser who has given millions to the cause.
The New York Jets owner – heir to the Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical empire – is worth an estimated £6.3billion (£5.1billion) according to Forbes.
As the head of a private investment firm, he was quizzed by the Senate in 2006 over the company’s use of tax avoidance schemes. He claimed he had simply relied on professional advisers who told him the use of tax havens was lawful. He later paid all the outstanding taxes plus interest in a settlement with the US taxman.
The philanthropist is a friend of Mr Trump but served as campaign treasurer to his bitter rival Jeb Bush in the Republican primaries. After the Bush campaign ran aground, Mr Johnson, 69, switched allegiance to Mr Trump.
The two men had clashed after the president-elect mocked the performance of the Jets on Twitter and cited Mr Johnson as an example of how Mr Bush was a puppet of big money interests.
Mr Johnson joins a Trump team heaving with billionaires and multimillionaires.
The president-elect revealed the appointment to the role – officially known as Ambassador to the Court of St James – at a lunch in Washington where he was listing the important guests present. Turning to Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, he told him he was ‘sitting next to the ambassador Woody Johnson, going to St James … congratulations, Woody.’
The new ambassador will move into the imposing Winfield House, in Regent’s Park, and is likely to be a key figure in any initiative by Downing Street and Trump’s White House to strengthen ties and possibly agree a new US-UK trade deal.
Most famous in the US as owner of the New York Jets, he has stuck with the major league team despite a rocky performance record – after paying $635million (£515million) for them in 2000. They are now valued at three times that sum.
The Jets caused a stir when they came to play a game at Wembley Stadium in 2015 and it emerged they had brought their own toilet paper to avoid the ‘thinner version used in England’.
Mr Johnson has given generously to charity, especially medical ones battling lupus and juvenile diabetes – which have affected members of his family.
He is twice married with four surviving children, but his daughter Casey was diagnosed with diabetes when she was eight and died in 2010 aged 30 from serious complications of the condition.