Craft expected to get post
POLITICAL DONOR, PHILANTHROPIST FROM COAL FAMILY IS LIKELY TRUMP’S ENVOY TO CANADA
Abig-money political donor and philanthropist with personal ties to the coal industry and professional connections to the White House and the U.S. Senate is expected to be named Donald Trump’s ambassador to Canada.
Expectations within government, as well as recent media speculation, point to the Trump administration submitting Kelly Knight Craft’s name for the approval of the Senate.
Knight Craft would recognize some friendly faces in that chamber — starting with that of top Senate leader Mitch McConnell. The Kentucky woman has donated to and co-chaired fundraising efforts over the years for her home-state senator.
“Everything indicated to me that they get along well,” said Mac Brown, chairman of the Republican party of Kentucky, of the McConnell connection. “She’s an unbelievable, very nice woman who is extraordinarily hard-working ...
“She’s gracious, and kind, and very giving.”
The chamber McConnell presides over is expected to deal with major issues affecting Canada over the coming years, including tax reform, trade disputes, and the potential renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement. She has a history in philanthropy. Knight Craft addressed the United Nations General Assembly after George W. Bush appointed her as an alternate delegate to the UN in 2007; she spoke to the hall about that president’s pledge to fight malaria and AIDS in Africa. She co-founded a charity to provide food, shelter, and clothing to Sri Lankan children left homeless or orphaned following the devastating Asian tsunami of 2004.
But those efforts drew mixed political reactions.
Her state’s Republican governor Ernie Fletcher praised the charity, called “With One Heart”: “I want to commend... their tireless efforts to provide relief to the innocent children of Sri Lanka.”
But soon the state’s Democratic attorney-general was investigating a spending history that went more to overhead expenses than charity. They announced a settlement of $25,634, which helped donations outpace overhead.
She’s also on the board of trustees at the University of Kentucky.
She was already involved in politics before her marriage a few years ago to coal billionaire Joe Craft.
A profile by McClatchy newspapers in 2012 called him possibly Kentucky’s most powerful non-elected individual. He was a critic of the Obama administration’s climate policies and drove an SUV with a licence plate stamped with the slogan, “Friends of Coal.”