President-elect Donald Trump announced Monday morning that he intends to nominate Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. It’s a big move for the 40-year-old rising star, who first joined the House only a decade ago and is now serving in a top leadership spot.
For people with backgrounds in diplomacy, USUN (as the job is known inside the State Department) would be a crown jewel in their careers. For Stefanik, the appointment brings her closer into Trump’s orbit — on paper at least. In practice, though, accepting the job at Turtle Bay could cause her ascendancy through the MAGA ranks to come crashing back down to Earth.
For Stefanik, the appointment brings her closer into Trump’s orbit — on paper at least.
If Stefanik takes over from current Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield — extending a run of women representing the U.S. at the U.N. Security Council and other forums — she’d be at the forefront of some of the most complex challenges that the international community faces, from the war in Ukraine to halting climate change to determining global rules for artificial intelligence. Stefanik would also be expected to serve as a chief translator for the Trump administration’s actions during daily interactions with other ambassadors.
Stefanik’s sole contribution to foreign affairs recently has been her extremely vocal defense of Israel as it continues its onslaught against Gaza. Beyond that, her diplomatic skills might be a little atrophied. Whereas Trump’s first U.N. ambassador, Nikki Haley, was governor of South Carolina and her successor, Kelly Craft, at least had a business background to draw on, Stefanik has spent the last several years operating with little more than Trump’s approval in mind. That skill set was built for the halls (and the greenrooms) of the Capitol, not U.N. headquarters.
We can also look to Haley’s tenure for an idea of what Stefanik’s run might resemble. Haley found herself relatively isolated from the rest of the chaos of the early Trump years, for good and for ill. On positive side, she didn’t have to put up with the infighting that was occurring daily. And though she ostensibly worked for Secretaries of State Rex Tillerson and Mike Pompeo, she formed a power center of her own in New York. She even managed to form decent relationships with U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres and many of her fellow ambassadors before her departure in 2018.
The downside for Haley was that being removed from Washington also meant that she had less influence on the course of the administration overall. She also could never fully say that she spoke directly for the U.S., not when Trump could contradict her via tweet at any moment. Haley’s experience doesn’t bode well for Stefanik, who will be peppered with questions about Trump’s intentions, and her power bases among the Washington elite and the MAGA faithful won’t be particularly helpful in negotiating with China and Russia.
The potential wrench in Stefanik’s apparent career trajectory would be the one thing most likely to make her hesitate at Trump’s offer. After coming to Washington as a moderate Republican, she remade herself in the MAGA image, impressing Trump with her aggressively fact-free defense of him during his first impeachment. Since his first presidency, she has continued ingratiating herself at every turn, attacking the judge in his New York trial, refusing to guarantee that she’d certify a Trump loss in this year’s election and trying to get his impeachments expunged from the Congressional Record. It was supplicant enough to have her among those Trump was considering to be his running mate this summer. The potential wrench in Stefanik’s apparent career trajectory would be the one thing most likely to make her hesitate at Trump’s offer. Stefanik’s rise among the House GOP made the reasoning behind her transformation rather transparent. She was quick to pounce when the Republicans demoted Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., from her role as chairwoman of the House Republican Conference for daring to say Trump sparked the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. During last year’s struggle to find a new speaker, Stefanik was considering making a run for a promotion, potentially jumping up to House majority leader. Other Republicans are already jockeying on the Hill to replace Stefanik in House leadership, should the Senate confirm her next year. Her vacant seat might also make things more difficult for Republicans’ potentially narrow majority to pass anything while a special election is held in her district. But the fact that the domestic politics of her appointment will likely overshadow any discussion of the policy implications speaks volumes about what her nomination would mean for the U.N. itself. Setting aside its struggles to secure peace and security, the humanitarian works the broader U.N. system carries out are vital to millions of people globally. Stefanik’s appointment suggests a lack of willingness to support those missions, especially considering her desire to defund the U.N.’s relief works in Gaza and the West Bank. Stefanik as U.N. ambassador would signal a further retreat from a position of authority and leadership as she carries out her boss’ wishes to put America First. The ambition Stefanik has displayed so far makes it likely that she’ll want to continue to claw her way closer to the center of power in Trump’s world. The U.N. ambassador role is a difficult post from which to pull off that climb, as its public-facing nature belies its distance from the decision-making in Washington. She seems similarly unlikely to throw herself into the role the same way Haley did, risking souring Trump’s opinion of her. And there are few things Trump hates more than a loser in his midst, meaning she must at least try to show competency in diplomatic fights. It’s a balancing act that Stefanik, publicly one of MAGA’s most ardent disciples, may privately come to resent.
Hayes Brown is a writer and editor for MS NOW Daily. 
