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Donald Trump chooses New York Congresswoman Elise Stefanik as US ambassador to the UN
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Donald Trump chooses New York Congresswoman Elise Stefanik as US ambassador to the UN

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Donald Trump has selected Elise Stefanik as US ambassador to the UN, picking a loyal ally in Congress and a critic of the international organization to serve on his national security team.

“I am honored to nominate President Elise Stefanik to serve in my Cabinet as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations,” Trump said in a statement Monday. “Elise is an incredibly strong, tough and smart America First fighter.”

The president-elect’s decision is one of his first Cabinet-level appointments and signals that the new Trump administration will likely be more protective of Israel at the UN than its predecessor.

The Republican congresswoman from New York went viral last year for questioning Claudine Gay and Liz Magill, then presidents of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania, respectively, about anti-Semitism on their campuses. Both ultimately resigned after struggling to provide clear answers to Stefanik’s questions about whether calling for the genocide of Jews would violate the school’s conduct policy.

Stefanik, 40, has risen quickly in the political world. After graduating from Harvard in 2006, she worked in George W. Bush’s White House and helped Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan prepare for debates in 2012.

In 2014, at the age of 30, she was elected to represent a district of the U.S. House of Representatives in upstate New York, making her the youngest woman in Congress in U.S. history at the time. Over the past decade, she has risen to Republican leadership in the House of Representatives and serves on the Intelligence Community and Armed Services committees.

Stefanik is a fierce critic of the UN and has repeatedly accused the international organization of being anti-Semitic due to its frequent criticism of Israel and its policies against Hamas in Gaza. The UN has long opposed the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank.

Stefanik in October called for a “complete reassessment of U.S. financing of the United Nations” and supported blocking U.S. aid to UNRWA, the U.N. Palestinian refugee aid agency, which is the main aid provider for Palestinians living in occupied territories live.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and other Republicans praised Trump’s choice. “There is no one better to represent President Trump’s foreign policy and American values ​​at the United Nations than Elise Stefanik,” Scalise said.

The New York Post first reported the appointment.