Donald Trump remakes American diplomacy in Florida's image
One out of every three nominees to ambassador-level positions in the Trump administration hails from the president's adopted home state of Florida, a higher percentage than any other state has produced in the past two decades.
The nation's top diplomat, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, is also from Florida.
'Clearly, Florida is the political epicenter of Trump world,' said Mauricio Claver-Carone, who recently left his role in the administration as the U.S. State Department's special envoy to Latin America and served in numerous roles in the first Trump administration.
The nominations — highly coveted positions given to top supporters in any administration — come as the president has deprioritized career diplomats, radically remaking the country's foreign policy apparatus. The administration has shuttered the U.S. Agency for International Development, which annually gave billions in foreign aid, and fired more than a thousand U.S. State Department employees last week.
Political nominees are often posted to friendly Western allies with little chance of major conflict, while career foreign service officers are often given the most sensitive assignments.
This time around, the White House has so far only nominated three career foreign service officers to serve as an ambassador — far less at this point than any administration in the past 25 years — and Florida nominees, who have varying levels of experience, have been tasked with some of the most delicate appointments, including Panama, Mexico and Colombia.
The list of Florida nominees features a mix of top campaign donors, Mar-a-Lago regulars and personal friends of the president including:
South Florida healthcare entrepreneurs and top donors Benjamín León Jr., who gave $3 million to political committees supporting Trump last year, and Peter Lamelas, who gave more than $700,000 to Pro-Trump committees last year and another $250,000 to Trump's inaugural committee. Leon was tapped to be the ambassador in Spain and Andorra and Lamelas is the pick to represent the country in Argentina.
Windermere trial lawyer Dan Newlin, who gave more than $5 million to pro-Trump committees during the 2024 election and $1 million to the inaugural fund, is Trump's choice to be the ambassador to Colombia.
Kimberly Guilfoyle, Donald Trump Jr.'s ex-girlfriend and a former Fox News host, is the pick to represent the country in Greece.
Michael Waltz, Trump's former national security adviser and a former Florida congressman, was nominated to be the ambassador to the United Nations
Kevin Cabrera, a former Trump campaign staffer and Miami-Dade county commissioner, who successfully pushed for a street in Hialeah to be renamed 'President Donald J. Trump Avenue,' was nominated to be the ambassador to Panama.
Trump's personal friends and golfing partners John Arrigo, a West Palm Beach car dealer, and Michel Issa, a Highland Beach investor, who were tapped to be ambassadors to Portugal and Lebanon, respectively.
While many of the nominees have lived in Florida for decades, others are more recent arrivals drawn to the state because of Trump, said Yehuda Kaploun, the Miami-based founder of the Florida Orthodox Jewish Association and Trump's pick to be special envoy to monitor and combat anti-semitism.
'A lot of people have moved to Florida,' he said.
'You've not even done your homework'
With the Senate under Republican control, Trump has prioritized moving ambassador nominees through the confirmation process as quickly as possible.
'They're going along as rapidly as the system can go along. We're ahead of, I guess, anyone else thus far,' Trump said in March at a gathering at the White House with several of his ambassador nominees.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is tasked with vetting nominees before they go to the Senate floor for a full confirmation vote.
In March, Democrat Brian Schatz of Hawaii put a hold on nominees reaching the Senate floor in protest of the shuttering of USAID, but it hasn't stopped the progress of nominees and several have already been confirmed through a process called cloture, which allows these votes to advance with a majority vote.
Democrats have voiced their disapproval of several Florida nominees, but there's little else they can do to block their nominations.
On Tuesday, Waltz faced tough questions about his participation in a group chat on the encrypted messaging platform Signal while he was national security adviser in which details of upcoming military strikes were shared with a journalist from The Atlantic.
'We both know Signal is not a secure way to convey classified information,' said Democrat Sen. Chris Coons, of Delaware. 'And I was hoping to hear from you that you had some sense of regret over sharing what was very sensitive, timely information about a military strike on a commercially available app that's not, as we both know, the appropriate way to share such critical information.'
Waltz denied that any classified information was shared by the group and said that the government recommended that some government officials use encrypted messaging tools like Signal.
Last week, Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a Democrat, chided Anjani Sinha, the nominee to be ambassador to Singapore, for his lack of knowledge about the country.
'You've not even done your homework, sir,' Duckworth said.
She said that the position was 'not a glamour posting' because of the country's strategic importance in the U.S. relationship with China. Duckworth said she had hoped the White House would nominate a career foreign service officer to fill the role rather than Sinha, a retired orthopedic surgeon living in West Palm Beach described by South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham as a 'a friend of President Trump for over a decade.'
Democrats boycotted a May 8 hearing to protest what ranking Democrat Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, of New Hampshire, characterized as a break from the committee's 'long-standing rules and traditions' calling for bipartisan coordination.
But the boycott wound up smoothing the path for a controversial Florida nominee.
Lee Rizzuto, a former executive at the beauty accessories company Conair, was blocked from becoming an ambassador during the first Trump administration by the Republican-controlled Senate Foreign Relations Committee over concerns that the Boca Raton businessman had spread conspiracy theories. He was later appointed to lead the U.S. Consulate General in Bermuda, which didn't require Senate confirmation.
This time around, there were no Democrats present to question Rizzuto about his nomination to be the ambassador to the Organization of American States.
'That's good news for you, because sometimes these can get a little testy,' the committee's Republican Chair Sen. James Risch said to Rizzuto and his fellow nominees at the May hearing. 'But obviously that won't happen this morning.'
Sen. Shaheen objected to Rizzuto's nomination when it came up for a vote a week later, saying that Rizzuto 'has been willing to share unfounded conspiracy theories online to attack members of Congress, including members of this committee.'
But Rizzuto's nomination was approved by a party line vote.
'A lot of gravitas'
The United States is unique among Western countries for the number of political appointees who are appointed to be ambassadors.
'These are extraordinarily plum positions and are highly sought after,' said Rufus Gifford, a political appointee to two ambassador-level roles — chief of protocol in the Biden Administration and ambassador to Denmark in the Obama administration.
Over the past 50 years, presidents have typically drawn about two-thirds of their ambassador nominees from the ranks of career foreign service officers, while roughly one-third have been political appointees, according to data from the American Foreign Service Association.
That the White House has only nominated three career appointee is a major shift from prior administrations.
'I hope to see a stronger commitment to advancing qualified career foreign service officers who bring deep experience to our diplomatic corps,' Shaheen said.
The White House and State Department did not respond to requests for comment.
Research suggests that on average there aren't huge differences in performance between career appointees and political appointees, but that there is greater variation among political ambassadors, who come from a wide range of backgrounds.
'With career ambassadors in hand, you expect more of a steady hand, more predictability,' said Matt Malis, a political science professor at Texas A&M University.
Veteran diplomats say that the specialized training and experience that foreign service officers receive is essential for leading politically sensitive embassies.
'In foreign policy, you have to know the nuances or you're going to get taken to lunch,' said Harry Thomas, a career foreign service officer who served as U.S. ambassador to Bangladesh, the Philippines and Zimbabwe.
Gifford said that he learned a 'tremendous amount' from his interactions with career appointees and that it is important for political appointees to adopt an apolitical mindset when becoming ambassadors.
'Government service is a different animal,' he said. 'You're not representing MAGA, you are representing every single American.'
Political appointees do bring one big advantage over career ambassadors: their connection to the president.
'What distinguishes them from the foreign service is that some of them can pick up the phone and call Trump. That's usually not likely to happen to a career nominee,' said Tom Yazdgerdi, the outgoing president of the American Foreign Service Association and a former foreign service officer.
Claver-Carone said that many foreign countries, particularly in Latin America, tend to take ambassadors more seriously if they have a close connection to the president.
'I think that that adds a lot of gravitas,' he said.
But that loyalty to the president can come at a cost, said Mark Feierstein, a political appointee in multiple Democratic administrations, most recently as a top official at the United States Agency for International Development during the Biden Administration.
'You want people to feel free to push back. That's not what's happening now,' he said.
The small number of career nominees, combined with the dismantling of USAID and cuts to the State Department, has Yazdgerdi concerned about what it could mean for the future pipeline of foreign service officers.
'Many people strive to be an ambassador, that's the pinnacle of a career,' he said. 'If that's really cut off, that demoralizes people. That's just one more thing that makes a career in the foreign service less attractive.'
But Claver-Carone said that with a 'big pool' of potential candidates, he doesn't expect the administration to stop appointing political nominees anytime soon.
What's more, he said, the range of countries where political appointees are jockeying to serve is greater than in past administrations, with Floridians, in particular, interested in a wider range of countries in Latin America.
'I don't recall seeing people fighting to become the ambassador to El Salvador,' he said.
The most recent nomination hearings reflect Florida's continued overrepresentation in the nominee pool.
Two out of three ambassador nominees at a hearing Tuesday hailed from Florida, and three of the five nominees at a hearing last week were also from Florida.
At last week's hearing, Florida Republican Sen. Ashley Moody was on hand to introduce Jennifer Locetta, the former executive director of the Florida Republican Party and Trump's pick to serve in an ambassador-level role at the United Nations.
'This is just another great Floridian volunteering her time and coming up to DC to serve her country,' Moody said of Locetta. 'I'm thrilled that many great Floridians have volunteered to serve and have been nominated by this administration to carry out President Trump's vision for this country.'
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
21 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Mike Johnson says Ghislaine Maxwell pardon would give him ‘pause,' won't get ahead of Trump
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, said he believes Ghislaine Maxwell, a key associate of Jeffrey Epstein currently serving 20 years in prison for conspiring to sexually abuse minors, should face "a life sentence." "If you're asking my opinion, I think 20 years was a pittance," Johnson told NBC's Kristen Welker on "Meet the Press" July 27. "I think she should have a life sentence, at least." His remarks to NBC come as many, including supporters of President Donald Trump, clamor for testimony from Maxwell. Some followers of the case have proposed a pardon in exchange, but Trump told reporters on July 25 he hadn't considered the move. "I'm allowed to do it, but it's something I have not thought about," the president said. Epstein was charged with sexually trafficking minors and died by suicide while in detention in 2019. Maxwell, his longtime girlfriend, has been accused of recruiting minors for the disgraced financier's predation. Maxwell maintains her innocence and is appealing her 2021 sex-trafficking conviction. Johnson in his interview with NBC reiterated that pardons aren't up to him, telling the outlet, "obviously that's a decision of the president." "I won't get in front of him," Johnson said. "That's not my lane." But, later in the interview he noted, "It's hard to put into words how evil this was, and that she orchestrated it and was a big part of it." "So, again, not my decision," he added, "but I have great pause about that, as any reasonable person would." The Trump administration for weeks has faced backlash over its handling of Epstein's case. Critics from Democratic lawmakers to prominent Republicans and slices of Trump's voter base accuse the president and other officials of not being transparent with the American people. The speaker has faced his own ongoing Epstein-related criticism, as some House Republicans have zeroed in on the Justice Department's recent review of Epstein's case and are calling for related documents to be released publicly. Democrats in Congress have piled on too. Reps. Ro Khanna, D-California, and Thomas Massie, R-Kentucky, introduced a bipartisan measure to force the Trump administration's hand in releasing the federal government's files. Also on "Meet The Press," the pair split on pardoning Maxwell. "That would be up to the president," Massie said. "But if she has information that could help us, then I think she should testify. Let's get that out there. And whatever they need to do to compel that testimony, as long as it's truthful, I would be in favor of." Khanna disagreed, saying Maxwell shouldn't receive a pardon. "Look, I agree with Congressman Massie that she should testify," the California Democrat said. "But she's been indicted twice on perjury. This is why we need the files. This is why we need independent evidence." Contributing: Bart Jansen and Aysha Bagchi, USA TODAY This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Mike Johnson reacts to possible pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell


New York Post
22 minutes ago
- New York Post
Democrats self-own bragging about inflation shows the left has learned NOTHING
Everybody makes mistakes. Not everyone makes the same mistakes over and over again. Last week, the geniuses in charge of maintaining the Democratic Party's social media picked at a fresh wound — and showed, again, exactly why it lost the 2024 election. The blue team's official X account shared a line chart showing the change in the price of various groceries — meat, dairy, produce, etc. — over time, and asserting that 'prices are higher today than they were on [sic] July 2024.' 'Trump's America,' read the caption. The problem? The last part of the line barely went up. The blue team's official X account, with the caption 'Trump's America,' shared a chart showing the change in the price of various groceries, asserting that 'prices are higher today than they were on [sic] July 2024.' Eric Daugherty, /X And what it actually showed was a massive increase in prices between 2021 and 2024. In other words: over the course of former President Joe Biden's White House tenure. 'I would just advise Democrats not to post about inflation given their track record,' suggested conservative influencer A.G. Hamilton. 'Might save them the embarrassment of having to delete their posts after getting dunked on' — which is exactly what they did. 'This is the gang that couldn't shoot straight!' marveled Fox Business host Stuart Varney. And of course Team Trump got in on the action. The problem with the chart was that it actually showed a massive increase in prices between 2021 and 2024 – when Biden was president. RapidResponse47/X What's notable about the braindead blunder, though, is not the blunder itself. It was that it represented yet another admission, eight and a half months after they surrendered the presidency to Donald Trump for the second time in three election cycles, that the Democrats still haven't made a sincere effort at diagnosing the reasons for their unpopularity — much less addressing them. A new Wall Street Journal poll found that their party continues to suffer as a result — to the point that just 33% of Americans hold a favorable view of it, and 63% view it unfavorably. Both Donald Trump (-7) and the GOP (-11) are also underwater, but may as well be polling as well as ice cream compared to the Democrats. The same holds true of the public's view of various issues; voters still trust the GOP more than the alternative when it comes to the economy, inflation, immigration and foreign policy. If that doesn't wake Democrats up to the provenance of all their political pain, nothing will. The Left has long relied on comforting fallacies to numb the discomfort that accompanies defeat. After 2016, elected Democrats and their media allies insisted that Trump's shocking victory was only possible thanks to Russian meddling. And now, they're laboring under the misimpression that return to power can be attributed to Republicans' superior, but decepting messaging — an almost supernatural ability to compel Americans to believe that which isn't so. If only they could convince the public of the truth, they'd surely prevail. But the cold, hard truth is that it's always been about the substance, stupid — as the unflattering data they so proudly shared last week demonstrates. Kamala Harris was deposited into the dustbin of history because she was the top lieutenant in an administration that had proven a miserable failure long before her boss's implosion last summer. Americans spent the entirety of the Biden years telling pollsters that their lives were demonstrably, palpably worse as a result of historic price hikes. Biden & Co. responded to these pleas for relief by denying the existence of inflation until they couldn't any longer. Then, when they finally did implicitly admit to the effects of the nearly $2 trillion boondoggle they passed in 2021, they slapped the name 'Inflation Reduction Act' on yet another profligate spending bill that every layman in America knew would only compound the problem. There are similar stories to be told about Americans' dissatisfaction with Biden's approach to foreign policy, his abdication of his duty to secure the border, and his championing of a radical social agenda that maintains up is down, left is right, and black is white. Their stubborn refusal to grapple with this incontrovertible truth is also reportedly set to be reflected in an upcoming 2024 autopsy conducted by the DNC. The New York Times reports that it will 'steer clear of the decisions made by the Biden-turned-Harris campaign,' and instead 'focus more on outside groups and super PACs that spent hundreds of millions of dollars aiding the Biden and Harris campaigns through advertising, voter registration drives and turnout efforts.' It's like watching a restaurant serving inedible food invest in new plateware. The gripe has never been with the Democrats' presentation or voters' tastes. It's with the product itself.

USA Today
22 minutes ago
- USA Today
Mike Johnson says Ghislaine Maxwell should serve 'life sentence,' opposes potential pardon
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, said he believes Ghislaine Maxwell, a key associate of Jeffrey Epstein currently serving 20 years in prison for conspiring to sexually abuse minors, should face "a life sentence." "If you're asking my opinion, I think 20 years was a pittance," Johnson told NBC's Kristen Welker on "Meet the Press" July 27. "I think she should have a life sentence, at least." His remarks to NBC come as many, including supporters of President Donald Trump, clamor for testimony from Maxwell. Some followers of the case have proposed a pardon in exchange, but Trump told reporters on July 25 he hadn't considered the move. "I'm allowed to do it, but it's something I have not thought about," the president said. Epstein was charged with sexually trafficking minors and died by suicide while in detention in 2019. Maxwell, his longtime girlfriend, has been accused of recruiting minors for the disgraced financier's predation. Maxwell maintains her innocence and is appealing her 2021 sex-trafficking conviction. Johnson in his interview with NBC reiterated that pardons aren't up to him, telling the outlet, "obviously that's a decision of the president." "I won't get it in front of him," Johnson said. "That's not my lane." But, later in the interview he noted, "It's hard to put into words how evil this was, and that she orchestrated it and was a big part of it." "So, again, not my decision," he added, "but I have great pause about that, as any reasonable person would." The Trump administration for weeks has faced backlash over its handling of Epstein's case. Critics from Democratic lawmakers to prominent Republicans and slices of Trump's voter base accuse the president and other officials of not being transparent with the American people. The speaker has faced his own ongoing Epstein-related criticism, as some House Republicans have zeroed in on the Justice Department's recent review of Epstein's case and are calling for related documents to be released publicly. Democrats in Congress have piled on too. Reps. Ro Khanna, D-California, and Thomas Massie, R-Kentucky, introduced a bipartisan measure to force the Trump administration's hand in releasing the federal government's files. Also on "Meet The Press," the pair split on pardoning Maxwell. "That would be up to the president," Massie said. "But if she has information that could help us, then I think she should testify. Let's get that out there. And whatever they need to do to compel that testimony, as long as it's truthful, I would be in favor of." Khanna disagreed, saying Maxwell shouldn't receive a pardon. "Look, I agree with Congressman Massie that she should testify," the California Democrat said. "But she's been indicted twice on perjury. This is why we need the files. This is why we need independent evidence." Contributing: Bart Jansen and Aysha Bagchi, USA TODAY