Nauert withdraws as Trump’s nominee

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert withdrew from consideration as President Donald Trump’s nominee to be ambassador to the United Nations, she said in a statement Saturday.

Nauert’s nomination began to falter after the White House was alerted to a problem in her background check: Nauert had in the past employed a nanny who was here illegally — and would almost certainly have come out in Nauert’s confirmation hearing — given that halting illegal migration was a centerpiece of Trump’s campaign and has animated his fight to build a wall on the border with Mexico. A day before Nauert withdrew, Trump declared a national emergency to secure more money for the proposed wall after Congress approved only about $1.4 billion in a spending deal.

“I am grateful to President Trump and Secretary Pompeo for the trust they placed in me for considering me for the position of U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations,” Nauert said in the statement. “However, the past two months have been grueling for my family and therefore it is in the best interest of my family that I withdraw my name from consideration.”

The statement didn’t acknowledge the issue with Nauert’s nanny or any other specific problem with her nomination.

Trump had said in early December that he planned to nominate Nauert, 49, to replace Nikki Haley as UN ambassador. Suspicion later mounted that her nomination was running into trouble because the White House never formally submitted her name for Senate confirmation, even after Haley resigned at year end. State Department officials insisted there was nothing unusual in that delay.