News

(WASHINGTON) — As the Trump administration pushes its “America First” agenda, cutting foreign aid agencies and challenging longtime allies, President Donald Trump has tapped a roster of ambassadors with more personal and financial ties than any recent president, former diplomats and foreign policy experts told ABC News.

Trump has, in just over 100 days in office, selected family members, wealthy members of his clubs, and high-profile media backers to carry out his “America First” mission at key outposts across the globe. Nearly all have lengthy records of publicly and vocally supporting the president, while only a handful have diplomatic backgrounds or experience in foreign services.

Trump’s diplomatic nominees have also collectively poured tens of millions of dollars into his political operations, with the so-called “donor to ambassadorship pipeline” — where major political fundraisers secure plush ambassadorial appointments — becoming more pronounced under the second Trump presidency.

“It’s the sale of diplomatic posts in return for campaign money, and both sides have been playing that,” said Anthony Gardner, a former ambassador to the European Union under the Biden administration. “Indeed, it’s been happening across the aisle for a long time, for decades even, and it’s gotten much more pronounced in this term, the second Trump term, than ever before.”

At least 38 of the 50 individuals announced or confirmed to diplomatic positions so far have either donated to or helped fundraise for Trump-connected political entities, directing at least $46 million to his presidential campaigns, various pro-Trump super PACs, or to Trump’s record-breaking second inaugural committee, disclosure records show. Those figures do not account for additional contributions bundled by those individuals.

By comparison, according to government ethics advocacy group Campaign Legal Center’s analysis from 2023, former President Joe Biden’s ambassador appointees together gave a total of $22 million to various Democratic candidates and groups, including to the Biden campaign, in the ten years prior to their nomination.

Trump has also tapped several members of his extended family for diplomatic roles, nominating Charles Kushner, his eldest daughter’s father-in-law, as ambassador to France, and Kimberly Guilfoyle, his eldest son’s ex-fiancée, as ambassador to Greece.

ABC News has reached out to the White House for comment.

Ed McMullen, a prolific Republican bundler and Trump’s former ambassador to Switzerland, says that a close personal relationship with the president can be a key strength as an ambassador, noting Guilfoyle as an example.

“Since the founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin serving as our first ambassadors were close to the president,” McMullen said. “There are supporters, they’re donors, they’re hard-working advocates, they’re friends. This is the case with every ambassador.”

“When you’re in Europe or anywhere in the world, and you’re an ambassador representing the president of the United States and you can pick up the phone and call him and have a one-on-one relationship with the president, the president and the government of the country you’re hosted in will be extremely appreciative of that timely efficacy that occurs from that,” McMullen said, recounting his experience as an ambassador under the first Trump presidency.

“That’s the whole purpose of having political appointees and not career people in critical countries with allies and friends,” he said.

But Campaign Legal Center’s Senior of Direct of Ethics Kedric Payne told ABC News that if nominees have no prior diplomatic experience beyond their personal relationship with the president, it can leave the impression that “qualifications don’t matter as much as who you know.”

“When you have something as critical as foreign policy based on who you know, it does diminish trust in government that these decisions are not based on the greater public interest,” Payne said.

Trump’s diplomatic nominees, like his cabinet picks, also include a high number of high-worth individuals. For the G7 alliance of the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the U.K., Trump has assembled one of the wealthiest group of ambassadors to hold those spots, with three billionaires out of the five nominees that have been named so far.

The three billionaires — Kushner, GOP megadonor and financier Warren Stephens, and Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta — together disclosed assets that could be worth a combined value of more than $8 billion. Kushner — who disclosed the extent of his private wealth for the first time — reported owning assets potentially worth more than $3.6 billion, boasting a vast real estate portfolio across the United States, and reporting earnings as high as half a billion dollars in income last year.

The two other G7 ambassadors — George Glass and Pete Hoekstra — are returning diplomats from Trump’s first term.

Others who Trump has tapped as ambassadors this time around include Herschel Walker, the former NFL star who unsuccessfully ran for Georgia Senate in 2022; Bill White, Trump’s longtime friend and Palm Beach neighbor who rallied conservative LGBTQ votes in support of Trump during the last presidential election; and Leandro Rizzuto, a Conair heir who was picked as an ambassador during Trump’s first term but failed to get confirmed by the Senate.

Among the campaign surrogates and allies who have received ambassadorships are Mayor Amer Ghalib of Hamtramck, Michigan, who helped bring together Muslim voters in Michigan for Trump; CatholicVote.org co-founder Brian Burch, a vocal critic of late Pope Francis; and ex-border patrol union leader Bradon Judd, who often spoke about immigration and border security at Trump rallies.

Several of those nominees have already faced a tough confirmation process as critics have questioned their qualifications.

Last week, Kushner, who pleaded guilty to 18 charges related to illegal campaign contributions and tax evasion in 2004 and was pardoned by Trump a month before he left the White House in his first term, was pressed by Senate Democrats about his past legal woes during his confirmation hearing.

During the hearing, Kushner acknowledged that his past run-in with the law was “a very, very, very serious mistake” but maintained his experience has helped him make better judgments and has made him “more qualified” for the ambassador role.

Other ambassador nominees who have faced legal troubles include White, the ambassador nominee to Belgium and former head of New York’s Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, who paid a $1 million settlement for his alleged role in an alleged illegal pay-to-play state pension fund scheme in New York, for which he denied wrongdoing.

Trump’s former inaugural committee chair Tom Barrack, who was charged for alleged illegal foreign lobbying on behalf of the United Arab Emirates in 2021, was acquitted when a jury found him not guilty on all his charges. Barrack has been nominated to serve as Trump’s ambassador to Turkey, a key diplomatic position that until recently was held mostly by career diplomats, and he touted his experience dealing with “business, governmental, legal and cultural issues in Europe, the Middle East and Asia” in his Certificate of Competency submitted through the State Department.

Walker, who lost his Senate race to incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock in the runoff election, faced allegations of violent behavior and forcing multiple women to have abortions — allegations he denied.

For Rizzuto, his nomination to become the ambassador to the Organization of American States is the second time he’s vying for an ambassadorship, after facing bipartisan opposition during Trump’s first term for his ambassador nomination to Barbados, largely due to his now-deleted social media posts about Trump’s political rivals during the 2016 election in which he called Mitt Romney a “Dumb A–” and Hillary Clinton a “terrorist with amnesia,” while accusing Sen. Ted Cruz’s wife Heidi of being a leader in the North American Union movement, “whose goal is to destroy the sovereignty of the United States.”

Trump, during his first term, eventually appointed Rizzuto to head the U.S. consulate in Bermuda, which does not require Senate confirmation.

Amid diplomatic challenges that include the conflict in the Middle East and high stakes tariff negotiations, only a handful of ambassadors have been confirmed and sworn in so far — including former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee as the ambassador to Israel, former Georgia Sen. Davie Perdue as the ambassador to China, and Trump’s campaign surrogate and former acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker as ambassador to NATO.

Huckabee, who is the father of Trump’s former press secretary and now Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, has had a lucrative year in 2024, earning more than $6 million from his various private ventures, including millions from his television and radio host work and nearly half a million each from Substack subscriptions and dozens of speaking engagements, according to financial disclosures.

Numerous other ambassador nominees, including Walker and Guilfoyle, have yet to publicly release their financial disclosures through the Office of Government Ethics, nor have they released their Certificates of Competency through the State Department — both of which must be filed before Senate confirmation.

Payne, of the Campaign Legal Center, said that without those disclosures, it’s difficult to know a nominee’s financial interests and qualifications.

“It is not a problem that a person simply contributes to the president and becomes an ambassador,” Payne told ABC News. “The problem is when that person is not qualified for the position.”

Payne stressed that it’s too early to make overarching observations about the qualifications of Trump’s ambassador picks — but he said that, no matter who the president is, diplomats must be qualified for their role.

“What’s happening in the Trump administration now, where foreign policy is so critical and so delicate based on issues that are happening with tariffs and other administrative policies, it’s the worst time to have unqualified representatives of United States in these countries,” Payne said.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — A flight carrying 59 refugees from South Africa landed in the United States on Monday afternoon — as the Trump administration insists that the expedited process for white South Africans to seek refuge in the United States has nothing to do with race.

The South African refugees’ arrival also comes amid the administration’s efforts to halt refugee programs from other countries.

Hours before the flight arrived at Dulles International Airport, President Donald Trump defended his administration’s decision to offer refugee status to the Afrikaners — a white minority group in South Africa. The president said that the asylum program is because there is a race-based genocide in the country.

“They happen to be white, but whether they’re white or black makes no difference to me, but white farmers are being brutally killed and their land is being confiscated in South Africa, and the newspapers and the media, television media doesn’t even talk about it,” Trump said during remarks at the White House.

Last week, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said this group of South Africans “has faced racial persecution.” She also went on to claim their farmland is being taken away. However, a law passed by South Africa earlier this year does not allow land to be expropriated without an agreement with the owner.

South Africa’s government has pushed back, saying the “allegations of discrimination are unfounded.”

“The South Africa Police Services statistics on farm related crimes do not support allegations of violent crime targeted at farmers generally or any particular race,” the South African government said in a statement last week. “There are sufficient structures available within South Africa to address concerns of discrimination. Moreover, even if there are allegations of discrimination, it is our view that these do not meet the threshold of persecution required under domestic and international refugee law.

Trump adviser Elon Musk has repeatedly talked about South Africa, his country of birth, on his social media account saying that the country is anti-white.

Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau greeted a group of about three dozen South Africans, many waving American flags, after they got off the plane at the airport in Northern Virginia.

Asked about the administration’s apparent prioritization of white South African refugees over others who are persecuted in their countries of origin, Landau harkened back to the pause on refugee admissions that Trump implemented when he retook the White House.

“That pause, of course, was subject, from the very beginning to exceptions where it was determined that this would be in the interest of the United States. Some of the criteria are making sure that refugees did not pose any challenge to our national security and that they can be assimilated easily into our country,” Landau said. “All of these folks who have just come in today have been carefully vetted pursuant to our refugee standards, and whether or not the broader refugee programs for other people around the world will be lifted is still an ongoing consideration.”

In March, Trump said that he would give some South African farmers and their families a pathway to citizenship. In the same month, the Trump administration kicked out the South African ambassador to the U.S.

In February, Trump signed an executive order that froze all aid to South Africa.

The South African government said in a statement that the order “lacks factual accuracy and fails to recognise South Africa’s profound and painful history of colonialism and apartheid.”

“It is ironic that the executive order makes provision for refugee status in the U.S. for a group in South Africa that remains amongst the most economically privileged, while vulnerable people in the U.S. from other parts of the world are being deported and denied asylum despite real hardship,” the South African government said in the statement.

The Trump administration quickly gave Afrikaners’ applications the green light – while it has paused refugee programs from other countries, including Afghanistan.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Monday defended the administration’s plans to receive a luxury jumbo jet donated by the Qatari government, saying it would be “stupid” not to accept a free plane.

During remarks at the White House on Monday, before embarking on a four-day trip to the Middle East, Trump called the donation a “very nice gesture” when pressed by reporters if Qatar had asked for anything in exchange.

“I think it’s a great gesture from Qatar. Appreciate it very much,” Trump said. “I would never be one to turn down that kind of an offer. I mean, I could be a stupid person and say, ‘No, we don’t want a free, very expensive airplane.’ But it was, I thought it was a great gesture.”

“I think it was a gesture because of the fact that we help, have helped, and continue to, we will continue to all of those countries, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar and others,” he continued.

Trump said he doesn’t plan to use the plane after he leaves office.

Further pressed by ABC News Senior Political Correspondent Rachel Scott on what he would say to people who view the luxury plane as a personal gift to him, Trump said it was not a gift to him but “a gift to the Department of Defense.”

Sources familiar with the proposed arrangement told ABC News that the plane would be a gift that is to be available for use by Trump as the new Air Force One until shortly before he leaves office, at which time ownership of the plane will be transferred to the Trump presidential library foundation.

Such an arrangement is sure to raise questions about whether it is legal for the Trump administration, and ultimately, the Trump presidential library foundation, to accept such a valuable gift from a foreign power.

On Monday, Trump referenced an anecdote involving the professional golfer Sam Snead to explain his acceptance of the plane.

“He had a motto, when they give you a putt, you say, ‘Thank you very much.’ You pick up your ball and you walk to the next hole,” he said. “A lot of people are stupid. They say, ‘No, no, I insist on putting it.’ And then they putt it, they miss it, and their partner gets angry at them. You know what? Remember that Sam Snead: when they give you a putt, you pick it up and you walk to the next hole and you say, ‘Thank you very much.'”

The White House is working on the “legal details” of the donation, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday.

“The Qatari government has graciously offered to donate a plane to the Department of Defense, the legal details of that are still being worked out,” Leavitt said in an appearance on Fox News.

“But, of course, any donation to this government is always done in full compliance with the law. And we commit ourselves to the utmost transparency and we will continue to do that,” Leavitt added.

A senior White House official said the plane will not be presented or gifted while the president is in Qatar this week on a tour of the Middle East, marking the first official foreign trip of Trump’s second term.

In a social media post Sunday night, Trump confirmed his administration was preparing to accept the aircraft, calling it a “very public and transparent transaction” with the Defense Department.

Trump had previously toured the plane, which is so opulently configured it is known as “a flying palace,” while it was parked at the West Palm Beach International Airport in February.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said he would not comment on Trump preparing to receive the jet from Qatar because he hasn’t seen the “details.”

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — A trade agreement between the U.S. and China on Monday slashed tit-for-tat tariffs between the world’s two largest economies and triggered a surge in the stock market.

The U.S. agreed to cut tariffs on Chinese goods from 145% to 30%, while China committed to reduce tariffs on U.S. products from 125% to 10%. The lowered tariffs will remain in place for 90 days while the two sides negotiate a wider trade deal.

Still, the agreement appeared to leave key sticking points unresolved as the two countries work through a newly established mechanism for further discussions.

In a joint statement, the U.S. and China touted the agreement as evidence that both sides recognize the “importance of a sustainable, long-term, and mutually beneficial economic and trade relationship.”

Here’s what to know about the new trade framework:

Lower tariffs
The trade agreement temporarily reduces tariffs imposed by the U.S. and China in the aftermath of Trump’s “Liberation Day” announcement last month.

The previous set of sky-high tariffs had threatened a surge in prices and a possible U.S. recession, experts told ABC News.

Jonathan Pingle, chief U.S. economist at Swiss investment bank UBS, estimated the reduction in U.S. levies on China would bring average U.S. tariffs down from 24% to 14%.

In a statement to ABC News, Pingle described the agreement between the U.S. and China as a “cooling off.”

Sector-specific tariffs on autos, aluminum and steel remain in place for Chinese goods, Trump told reporters at the Oval Office on Monday. Trump also said China would be subject to tariffs the White House plans to impose on pharmaceuticals.

The agreement preserves a set of 20% tariffs targeting China over its role in fentanyl trade, as well as a 10% levy slapped on imports from nearly all countries.

A plan for further negotiations
The framework established a mechanism for negotiations between the U.S. and China, setting up the countries for further discussions during the 90-day period of reduced tariffs.

Senior officials from both sides will take part in the talks, the statement added.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will represent the U.S., while China will be represented by Vice Premier of the State Council He Lifeng, a longtime associate of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Shang-Jin Wei, a professor of finance and economics at Columbia University who studies the U.S.-China trade relationship, described the mechanism for negotiations as “meaningful.”

“It’s not an empty statement – there will be negotiations,” Wei said.

But, Wei added, the agreement struck on Monday amounts to a “temporary solution” as the two sides engage in a challenging set of discussions over the next few months.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty about what will happen in 90 days,” Wei said.

Sticking points remain unresolved
Speaking at the White House on Monday, Trump acknowledged that verbal commitments made by both sides must be “papered,” meaning the broad accord has yet to be formalized through detailed agreements.

Trump has previously said he would like to narrow a $300 billion U.S. trade deficit with China, and roll back what he describes as non-tariff barriers to U.S. trade. The framework announced on Monday did not detail steps toward those efforts, Wei said.

The agreement also appeared to lack final resolution for a key sticking point centered on U.S. access to important materials largely controlled by China.

China imposed export restrictions on some rare earth elements and magnets that make up critical inputs in some U.S. auto, energy and defense products.

For now, Chinese companies can still export to U.S. customers, though the Chinese firms must receive approval from the Chinese government.

After the agreement, U.S. buyers are expected to have an easier path for such approval, but the restrictions are not expected to be fully removed, Reuters reported.

Rare earths are vital for a range of defense technologies, including F-35 fighter jets, Tomahawk missiles and radar systems, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, or CSIS, said last month.

The U.S. will likely also seek guarantees from China about the purchase of U.S. products, including agricultural goods, Wei said.

Meanwhile, Wei added, China will want to safeguard its access to U.S. markets, ensuring such exports continue to help drive the Chinese economy.

“China probably wants to adjust to reduce its dependence on U.S. markets,” Wei said. “But it wants to make sure those markets don’t go right away.”

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.