US President Donald Trump on Monday floated the name of David Friedman, former US Ambassador to Israel, as a possible nominee for US Ambassador to the UN, after the White House withdrew the candidacy of Rep. Elise Stefanik for the post.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said, “I can tell you that for the replacement [for Stefanik], we have a lot of people that have asked about it and would like to do it - David Friedman, Ric Grenell, and maybe 30 other people.”
He added, “Everyone loves that position. That's a star-making position. And so we'll see what happens, but we have a lot of people that are interested in going to the United Nations, as you can imagine.”
Trump cited the need for the Republicans to maintain their slim majority in the House of Representatives as the reason for the withdrawal of Stefanik’s appointment last week.
Stefanik rose to prominence when she grilled presidents of universities at a hearing of the House Education Committee which dealt with the phenomenon of rising antisemitism on college campuses, and exposed their failure to confirm that calls for the genocide of Jews violated their schools’ rules.
Friedman served as US Ambassador to Israel during Trump’s first in office, between 2017 and 2021, and was described by the New York Times as “one of America's most influential envoys”.
During his time as Ambassador to Israel, Friedman was instrumental in orchestrating the move of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.