US Senate confirms billionaire businessman Stephens as ambassador to Britain
WASHINGTON, April 29 (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Tuesday confirmed billionaire investment banker Warren Stephens to be ambassador to Britain, backing President Donald Trump's nominee by 59 to 39.
Stephens is chairman, president, and CEO of Stephens Inc., a privately owned financial services firm headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas. He is a longtime contributor to Republican candidates, including Trump, having donated millions of dollars to support his campaigns and 2025 inauguration fund.
U.S. presidents often name major donors to the prestigious post in London. During Trump's first term in the White House, Woody Johnson, the owner of the New York Jets National Football League team, held the post.
Stephens will represent the United States in London as Prime Minister Keir Starmer's government seeks to reset ties with the European Union after Brexit, when Britain left the EU in 2020, following Trump's upending of security and trade alliances.
Starmer's government is also seeking an improved economic deal with Washington to lower some of the tariffs Trump has imposed on imported goods.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Metro
30 minutes ago
- Metro
Donald Trump's new anti-terror chief is a former gardener born after 9/11
Meet Thomas Fugate, former gardener, supermarket assistant and now, the man reportedly tasked by Donald Trump with tackling US extremism. At the mere age of 22, Fugate was born after the 9/11 Al-Qaeda attacks – but he has just been handed one of the most complex jobs in American national security. It is the kind of a career jump that raises an eyebrow even under the shock-and-awe tactics within the Trump administration. The recent graduate of the University of Texas at San Antonio is currently heading up the Centre for Prevention Programmes and Partnerships at the Department for Homeland Security (DHS), as first reported by ProPublica. He landed a position on the president's campaign in 2024, and was later hired by DHS in February. Also known as CP3, the division within DHS plays a vital role supporting nationwide efforts to combat terrorism. After it was established in 2021, it has handed out around $90 million in funding to organisations working to prevent hate-fuelled violence. CP3 saw its staff reduced by approximately three-quarters during the early months of Trump's second term in office. It is one of the reasons why Fugate's appointment as a special assistant in the division is so jaw-dropping. One counterterrorism researcher who has worked with CP3 officials for years said it sounds 'like putting the intern in charge'. They added: 'Maybe he is a wunderkind. Maybe he is Doogie Howser and has everything at 21 years old, or whatever he is, to lead the office. But that's not likely the case.' According to his LinkedIn page – which has been deleted as the story of his promotion gathered heat – he has almost no experience in this field. Before his promotion, he was working as a neighborhood gardener just five years ago and in a supermarket as recently as August 2023. Fugate interned at the Heritage Foundation, the think tank behind Project 2025, and for Texas Representatives Terry Wilson and Steve Allison. His Instagram account, which has also been made private in the last 48 hours, shows his long-term support for Trump. More Trending A caption of a picture of Fugate snapped at a Trump rally read: 'There ain't no party like a Republican Party, and you can quote me on that one. 'You will truly never meet a more unique, interesting, enthusiastic, and patriotic group of people in one place that at the Republican National Convention, I can tell you that.' A statement from DHS said about the promotion: 'Due to his success, he has been temporarily given additional leadership responsibilities in the Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships office. 'This is a credit to his work ethic and success on the job.' Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Donald Trump and Elon Musk might make peace – but it will never last MORE: Ireland has a US border — it could help travellers nervous about Trump's America MORE: Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein's messy history amid fallout with Elon Musk
Daily Mail
33 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Navarro responds to Musk-Trump feud
By Published: | Updated: Trump trade advisor Peter Navarro brushed off the exploding feud between President Trump and Elon Musk by comparing the world's richest man to something a consumer might forget about in the back of the fridge. Navarro, a Trump loyalist who served four months in prison for refusing to comply with a congressional subpoena, was among the first Trump Administration officials on camera after the Trump-Musk clash went into meltdown mode. The two men were completely at odds over Trump's tariffs, which prompted a reporter to ask Navarro at the White House whether he was glad to see Musk out of the fray. 'No, I'm not glad. Whatever,' Navarro replied. 'It's – people come and go from the White House. He was a Special Government Employee with an expiration date,' Navarro said. Musk served in government as a 'Special Government Employee,' and the administration cited the 130-day limit when explaining his departure, although Trump had the power to renew it. Trump himself used language Thursday that gave the impression he fired Musk. 'Elon was 'wearing thin,' I asked him to leave,' Trump wrote in just one of his slams on his former first buddy. Later, Navarro, 75, had something nice to say about Musk's team of programmers and aides who got access to agency computer systems and searched for contracts. 'I work with the DOGE folks a lot here, and I've got a very special project, which at some point I'll come out here and talk about with them,' Navarro said. He claimed to have identified a government computer program that 'is run like a 1950s IBM punch card operation at great expense.' 'We're going to turn that from a Model T into a Ferrari,' he said. But he refused to divulge specifics on an extraordinary intervention. 'Stay tuned,' he said. Navarro has been a key proponent of Trump's tariffs, during both the first and second term, helping promote Trump's 'Liberation Day' tariffs that the administration calls 'reciprocal' to hit back at countries running a trade surplus with the U.S. In his stunning clash with Trump Thursday, Musk wrote that 'The Trump Tariffs will cause a recession in the second half of this year.' That put him at odds with Trump's cherished policy – and Trump's 'favorite word' in the dictionary – even while taking on Trump's 'big, beautiful bill,' which is Trump's top legislative priority. Navarro tried to smooth over the policy differences.
NBC News
44 minutes ago
- NBC News
Cantonese opera portrays fictionalized version of President Trump
In a Cantonese opera in Hong Kong, a Chinese actor playing a fictionalized version of President Trump parodies events of his presidency, including sparring with another actor playing Ukrainian President Zelenskyy. The show debuted in 2019 during Trump's first term but has had several iterations since then with the latest featuring the attempted assassination of 6, 2025
