It’s not a secret that Donald Trump, who hosted a television gameshow before launching a political career, is trying to staff his next administration with people who’ve spent a lot of time in front of a camera. Media Matters recently counted up the number of former hosts, contributors, and employees who worked under the Fox umbrella — including Fox News and Fox Business — who’ll soon join the Trump administration, and the list included 15 people.
With this in mind, perhaps it shouldn’t have come as too big of a surprise that the president-elect also has an apparent affinity for those who had behind-the-scenes roles in the television industry. NBC News reported:
President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday announced his intent to appoint his former producer from ‘The Apprentice’ to serve as special envoy to the United Kingdom. Mark Burnett has received three-dozen Emmy nominations, winning the award for about a third of those, according to the Television Academy’s website. Trump has previously praised Burnett during campaign trail appearances.
(Several of the programs that Burnett produced aired on NBC, and NBCUniversal is MSNBC’s parent company.)
At first glance, Trump’s online announcement about Burnett’s upcoming diplomatic role seemed rather anodyne: The Republican highlighted the TV producer’s “distinguished” private-sector career and awards, before concluding, “Mark will work to enhance diplomatic relations, focusing on areas of mutual interest, including trade, investment opportunities, and cultural exchanges.”
But just below the surface, there was a related question that might not have been immediately obvious. The Washington Post’s report on the announcement noted, “The scope of Burnett’s special envoy role was not immediately clear. Trump earlier in December said he would nominate billionaire donor Warren Stephens to serve as the U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom. Typically special envoys are appointed to countries where there are conflicts or no diplomatic relations, such as Iran.”
It’s the key detail that makes this story strange. Indeed, Burnett would not succeed the incumbent U.S. special envoy to the United Kingdom because there is no current U.S. special envoy to the United Kingdom. And the reason that there’s no one in that position now is that the United States does not need a special envoy to the U.K.
We have an embassy, an ambassador and a “special relationship” that covers a wide range of diplomatic, intelligence and cultural dimensions.
Special envoys are for areas facing international crises. Either the Republican president-elect isn’t fully aware of this, or he has concerns related to the United Kingdom of which the public is not yet aware.
