Allegations emerged during Walker’s failed Senate campaign that he paid two ex-girlfriends to have abortions

Summary

Donald Trump has nominated former NFL star and ex-Senate candidate Herschel Walker as the U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas.

Walker, who lacks diplomatic experience, previously co-chaired Trump’s council on health, nutrition, and fitness.

His 2022 Georgia Senate campaign was marred by scandals, including allegations of paying for abortions despite his anti-abortion stance, threats against his ex-wife, and false claims about his education and career.

Walker’s long-standing relationship with Trump dates back to the 1980s when he played for Trump-owned New Jersey Generals.

    • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
      21·
      11 days ago

      US ambassadorships to friendly countries are often doled out as political favors rather than to career diplomats, often to people who have raised a lot of money for a candidate’s campaign.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campaign_finance_in_the_United_States#Bundling

      One consequence of the limitation upon personal contributions from any one individual is that campaigns seek out “bundlers”—people who can gather contributions from many individuals in an organization or community and present the sum to the campaign. Campaigns often recognize these bundlers with honorary titles and, in some cases, exclusive events featuring the candidate.

      Although bundling existed in various forms since the enactment of the FECA, bundling became organized in a more structured way in the 2000s, spearheaded by the “Bush Pioneers” for George W. Bush’s 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns. During the 2008 campaign the six leading primary candidates (three Democratic, three Republican) listed a total of nearly two thousand bundlers.[61]

      There has been extensive criticism that US presidents have rewarded bundlers with political appointment, most notably ambassador positions where nominees have no qualifications for appointment.[62][63][64]

      If you look at spots like ambassador to China or Russia or something, though, those will go to people with a diplomatic background.

  • cabron_offsets@lemmy.world
    23·
    11 days ago

    Dude’s literally brain damaged. Checks out. Also hilarious that trump felt he needed a black guy for this post, what a simpleton.

  • IHeartBadCode@fedia.io
    17·
    11 days ago

    To note, the US has not sent an ambassador to the Bahamas since 2011. Nicole Avant, the last US ambassador, left the position to work with then President Obama’s reelection efforts in 2012. Since then we’ve largely left the role to the Chargé d’Affaires in the Bahamas. Nothing big happened, Avant’s tenure as ambassador wasn’t some ordeal or anything. It’s just been a long stream of weirdness and dysfunction that’s left the position open this long.

    • Obama’s purposed replacement died of leukemia before confirmation.
    • Trump kept trying to pitch Manchester whose nomination just kept getting stalled out. Didn’t help that he thought the Bahamas was a US protectorate and not, as it actually is, an independent country. But yeah, he was so ignorant of anything about the Bahamas that even the Republicans in the Senate couldn’t get him through.
    • Biden’s pick of Smyre just never made it to committee. Like it’s literally on their agenda as a To-Do. Oopsie, guess the forgot to get around to it.

    The fact that Walker is being picked is hilarious because the guy likely has zero ideas about anything related to foreign relations. It’s not some big secret that being Ambassador to the Bahamas carries with it the key to a really nice house in Nassau. And the embassy itself is quite nice though quaint. The real question is, will Walker be ambassador once the new facility gets done? Because the new embassy is supposed to be super fancy.

  • CaptainAmeristan@lemmy.zip
    6·
    11 days ago

    I was hoping for him to be appointed to Romania so that he might continue his investigation into who is cooler, vampires or werewolves.

  • Infynis@midwest.socialEnglish
    3·
    11 days ago

    Good for him. This guy obviously has a lot of problems; I’m sure he could use a trip to the Caribbean. And based on the fact that we’ve gotten by without an ambassador to the Bahamas for over a decade, I doubt he’ll mess up any crucial decisions lol