Trump’s Unofficial Nominee to UN Heather Nauert Drops Out

Nauert would have faced tough questions about her relative lack of foreign policy experience in the senate.

In this Aug. 9, 2017 file photo, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert speaks during a briefing at the State Department in Washington.

(Photo Courtesy: AP)

Heather Nauert, picked by President Donald Trump to be the next US ambassador to the United Nations but never officially nominated, has withdrawn from consideration, the State Department said on Saturday, 16 February.

Quoting Nauert, a State Department statement said that "the past two months have been gruelling for my family and therefore it is in the best interest of my family that I withdraw my name from consideration."

Nauert's impending nomination had been considered a tough sell in the Senate, where she would have faced tough questions about her relative lack of foreign policy experience, according to congressional aides. On condition of anonymity, an aide said that some of those who were involved in the vetting process saw Nauert's inexperience and questions about her ability to represent the US at the UN as a larger issue.

A potential issue involving a foreign nanny – who was legally in the US, but did not have the legal status to work – that she and her husband had employed may also have been a factor in her decision to withdraw, according to one aide.

Trump's initial UN ambassador, Nikki Haley, served for nearly all of the administration's first two years. She announced her resignation in October with plans to step down by year's end.

That December, Trump said he would nominate Nauert, called her "very talented, very smart, very quick" and said he thought she would be "respected by all." In the wake of November elections that strengthened Republican control of the Senate, her confirmation appeared likely if not easy. Yet Trump never put Nauert's name forward with the Senate and no confirmation hearing was scheduled.

The State Department in its statement that Trump would announce a nominee for the UN position "soon."

Nauert was a Fox News Channel reporter when she joined the State Department as spokeswoman almost two years ago during Rex Tillerson's tenure was secretary of state. She rose to the upper echelons of the department's hierarchy after Trump fired Tillerson in March 2018 and Mike Pompeo replaced him.

(With inputs from AP)