Trump weighs donors, establishment figures for ambassadorships

Donald Trump and Michael Flynn.
(Image credit: JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images)

As President-elect Donald Trump fills his last remaining Cabinet positions, analysts are turning to his ambassador appointments as the next signal to how the president-elect will run his government. While Trump has already named South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, and conservative hard-liner David Friedman as the ambassadors to the U.N., China, and Israel, respectively, the remaining posts could indicate whether Trump plans to stick to a more traditional ambassador team or whether he will buck the norm.

Trump is reportedly considering former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman for ambassador to Japan, a choice that would appease the party establishment as Huntsman is an experienced diplomat in East Asia, but the president-elect is also said to be considering less traditional figures like New York Jets owner Woody Johnson and New York developer Peter Kalilow. As Maggie Haberman writes in The New York Times:

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Kimberly Alters

Kimberly Alters is the news editor at TheWeek.com. She is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.