Monday December 02, 2024

Trump selects NY Rep. Elise Stefanik as UN ambassador

Published : 12 Nov 2024, 01:04

  DF News Desk
U.S. President elect Donald Trump. File Photo: Xinhua.

President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Elise Stefanik, a New York congresswoman and chair of the House Republican Conference, to serve as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, reported Xinhua.

"Elise is an incredibly strong, tough, and smart America First fighter," Trump said in a statement on Monday.

Stefanik, 40, was born and raised in upstate New York. From 2006 to 2009, She worked in former President George W. Bush's White House on the Domestic Policy Council and in the chief of staff's office.

In 2014, she made history as the youngest woman elected to Congress. In recent years, she became a staunch ally of Trump and went on to become the youngest woman ever to hold a leadership position in the House.

On Thursday, Trump tapped Susie Wiles, an experienced Republican strategist and his campaign manager, to be White House chief of staff.

Meanwhile, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump intends to narrow the shortlist of candidates for treasury secretary this week and is leaning toward someone with a Wall Street pedigree for the job, reported Xinhua, quoting Bloomberg on Monday.

"Names that have been floated for the Treasury role include Howard Lutnick, chief executive officer of Cantor Fitzgerald LP, hedge-fund billionaire John Paulson, former George Soros money manager Scott Bessent and Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, a former Carlyle Group Inc. executive," said the report.

Bessent met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, Florida, on Friday, but the meeting was not an interview for Treasury, said the report, adding that "Trump's transition planning is off to a quick start after the Republican notched a decisive win over Vice President Kamala Harris last week, allowing the president-elect to immediately pivot to selecting policy and personnel for his second White House stint."

Trump's Wall Street allies are urging him to appoint someone with deep finance industry knowledge to serve as treasury secretary, advice that the president-elect's team has indicated he'll follow, it noted. A wide swath of tax breaks expire next year, giving Trump the opportunity to broadly shape fiscal policy as he did with his 2017 tax cuts.