A former U.S. ambassador to China says President Joe Biden’s handling of the recent spy balloon affair has been a “disaster.”
Ambassador Terry Branstad, former longtime Iowa governor and President Trump’s top diplomat in China, tells The Iowa Star the Chinese Communist Party “respects strength” and the only thing Biden has shown them is weakness. He said it’s the latest in a long line of foreign policy blunders by the administration.
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In the initial draft of a student equity ambassador program informational packet, Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) barred students who weren’t colored from admission into the program.
Under “III. Process for Selecting Student Equity Ambassadors” the second process listing guidelines specifically mentioned students’ skin color as a qualifying factor.
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Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly often undermined President Donald Trump, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley reportedly noted in her upcoming book.
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Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, will reportedly testify that President Donald Trump told him in a phone call in September that he did not want a quid pro quo from Ukraine involving military aid, but that he is not certain that the president was telling the truth.
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by Evie Fordham Pundits are already throwing out the names of individuals who could replace outgoing U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley after her Tuesday announcement that she intends to step down at the end of 2018. Current U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell is already getting a large share of the attention after President Donald Trump said at a Tuesday Oval Office press conference that the new U.N. ambassador will be announced within two to three weeks. Other possible candidates include former deputy national security adviser for strategy Dina Powell and even Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump, who is one of his advisers. Richard Grenell Grenell is a Harvard-educated diplomat who was confirmed to his current post as U.S. ambassador to Germany in April. He is the longest-serving appointee at the U.N. in history, having served “as a U.S. spokesman and political appointee to the U.N.” for eight years, according to the Washington Examiner. He is also on good terms with national security adviser John Bolton after the two worked together in former President George W. Bush’s administration, according to the Washington Examiner. Grenell was on Donald Trump’s short list for U.N. ambassador during the 2016 presidential election, reported The New York Post. He…
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by Evie Fordham U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman called President Donald Trump “the most experienced negotiator ever elected to the presidency” ahead of Trump’s summit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin on “Fox & Friends” on Sunday morning. “I can tell you that in the president, we have the most experienced negotiator ever elected to the presidency,” Huntsman said. “You have a lot of presidents who have never had a negotiation before, unbelievable as that sounds, before they were elected president. So the president has pretty good instincts on these kinds of things.” Huntsman discussed U.S. strategy going into the talks in Helsinki, Finland, on the show. The summit will be the first time that Trump and Putin have had a one-on-one meeting. “We need to reduce the tension in the relationship,” the ambassador said. “We need to take the danger to the American people out of a bilateral relationship, a relationship that contains 90 percent of the world’s nuclear weapons … You have to build trust in a relationship that has none.” Watch the latest video at foxnews.com He listed some of the challenges Trump will face at the summit. “[The U.S. and Russia are] not talking with…
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An intriguing fact about the fate of Richard Grenell, President Trump’s nominee for Ambassador to Germany, was revealed Tuesday on the Hugh Hewitt Show. Hewitt began an interview with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) with a question on the fate of Grenell’s nomination: Hewitt: Rick Grenell not getting confirmed is an embarrassment.
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William F. Hagerty was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on Thursday to be President Trump’s ambassador to Japan. Senators voted 86-12 to to approve Hagerty’s nomination, the Associated Press reports. Hagerty is a founder and the managing director of the private-equity firm Hagerty Peterson and Company, which has corporate offices in Nashville and the Chicago area. From 2011-2014, the Tennessee native served as Gov. Bill Haslam’s economic development commissioner. He served as Mitt Romney’s national finance chair in 2008, and earlier in his career, served under former President George H.W. Bush as a White House fellow, reporting to the vice president on matters related to international trade, commerce, treasury, defense and telecommunications. A supporter of Jeb Bush early in the 2016 presidential election cycle, he switched to Trump after he secured the nomination. Hagerty was then instrumental in Trump’s campaign and later became director of presidential appointments for Trump’s transition team. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved Hagerty’s nomination last month after he assured Democrats that he had no role in the screening of Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser. Flynn is a key figure in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia.…
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The Associated Press reports President Trump has nominated William Francis Hagerty IV as Ambassador to Japan. Bill Hagerty, the co-founder of private-equity firm Hagerty Peterson and Company, is not a newcomer to politics. Earlier in his career, he served in the HW Bush Administration as a White House Fellow, reporting directly to the Vice President on matters of international trade, commerce, treasury, defense and telecommunications. After serving as Mitt Romney’s national finance chair in 2008, the Tennessee native was tapped by the newly-elected Governor Bill Haslam to serve as commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development. His three-year tenure from 2011 – 2014 was hailed for its successes of significant investments by companies like Bridgestone, Calsonic Kansei and Nissan into the Volunteer State. In total, Hagerty’s term oversaw the addition of more than $15 billion in capital and 90,000 jobs. Hagerty was a Jeb Bush supporter early in the 2016 presidential election cycle, but switched to Donald Trump after he cinched the nomination. Soon after, Hagerty became instrumental in the Trump campaign and was eventually named as the transition team’s Director of Appointments in August of 2016. News of his official nomination is not a surprise to political watchers. President Trump first mentioned…
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