USA TODAY International Edition
Nauert could face Senate fight for UN post
Critics say she has scant credentials for vital job
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s pick for United Nations ambassador, Heather Nauert, could face a tough Senate confirmation process – with her thin resume and the president’s unorthodox foreign policy thrust into the congressional spotlight at a turbulent moment in America’s global standing.
Trump announced Nauert’s nomination in remarks to reporters before leaving for an event in Missouri on Friday.
“She’s very talented, very smart, very quick, and I think she’s going to be respected by all,” Trump said of Nauert, a former Fox News anchor and current State Department spokeswoman.
The Trump administration also downgraded the U.N. ambassador position, which is now a Cabinet-level job. That means Nauert will have less influence and a lower profile inside the administration than outgoing U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who announced she would leave in October.
Nauert has served as the State Department’s chief spokeswoman since April 2017, winning Trump over with her polished, camera-ready defense of his “America First” approach to foreign policy. She has also earned the trust of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, traveling the globe with the former Kansas congressman and CIA director over the last seven months.
But if confirmed, Nauert would be one of the most inexperienced U.N. ambassadors in history at a time of extreme flux in international relations. Since taking office, Trump has picked major foreign policy fights with key U.S. allies, including Canada and France, while praising authoritarian regimes in Russia, North Korea and Saudi Arabia.
The U.N. job involves representing the U.S. at the U.N. Security Council and in delicate negotiations with other world leaders. Previous U.N. ambassadors include Adlai Stevenson, George H.W. Bush and Madeleine Albright.
Haley also came into the job with scant foreign policy experience, but as the former governor of South Carolina, she brought considerable political and negotiating skills to the post.
During State Department briefings, Nauert has rarely stumbled under sharp questioning by reporters, though she often deflects questions rather than directly answering them. Her biggest gaffe may have come when she cited DDay as evidence of the strong relationship between the U.S. and Germany.
“Tomorrow is the anniversary of the D-Day invasion. We obviously have a very long history with the government of Germany, and we have a strong relationship with the government,” she said in June.
Critics say that while Nauert is good at delivering Trump’s talking points, she does not have the kind of in-depth policy knowledge or political background needed for the U.N. job.
“The United Nations is the big leagues of diplomacy,” said Brett Bruen, who was director of global engagement in the Obama administration. “This is the most egregious example of Trump filling critical national security jobs by using a superficial casting criteria more appropriate for reality shows than the dangerous realities of today’s world.”
David Bosco, a professor of international relations at Indiana University, said Nauert would definitely be one of the least experienced for the position.
“Her only real foreign policy is this stint at the State Department in a kind of spokesperson role,” he noted. “Nor does she have what Haley had, which was significant high-level governing experience. So as I look at who we have had in this position over the decades, I think Nauert would be one of the least prepared for this position.”
That doesn’t mean she won’t be effective, Bosco added, saying her success will depend on her ability to connect with other world leaders and to demonstrate that she has the confidence of the president and his inner circle.
Nauert’s nomination also came under fire on Friday for rhetoric she used in some of her reporting at Fox. For example, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group, noted that in a 2013 story, Nauert blasted a program in St. Paul, Minnesota, that offered swim classes for SomaliAmerican girls, which included special arrangements to address their religious beliefs about modesty.
“Sharia law is now changing everything,” Nauert asserted in the segment, saying the program was an example of the “minority becoming the majority at one community pool.” The council said that report and others show that Nauert is Islamophobic.
Bosco said her lack of experience could be both a plus and minus as she prepares for Senate confirmation.
“There’s not a lot of a record to go over,” he said. “But I would expect some tough questions from senators about her qualifications and trying to probe how well prepared she is for this.”
If confirmed, Bosco said, Nauert is unlikely to wield the same influence as Haley since the administration has stripped the post of its Cabinet-level rank. Haley used that status to exercise significant sway over the president’s diplomatic strategy.
“Haley was an active participant in that process and, from what we know, Heather Nauert would not be,” said Bosco. He said generally, Democratic administrations have made the U.N. position a Cabinet-level job, whereas Republican presidents have lowered it, so as not to “overemphasize” the importance of the United Nations.
During her tenure, Haley pushed back on what she perceived as the U.N.’s anti-Israel bias and embraced Trump’s more isolationist agenda.
“The one thing I learned at the UN is that countries resent America. It’s a tough place,” Haley said in an interview withThe Atlantic published on Friday.