The youngest congresswoman in history, who began as a critic of Trump and ended up in his close circle, will represent the United States at the United Nations, after accusing the organization of anti-Semitism.
“A strong, tough, smart American fighter.” This is how President-elect Donald Trump defines the newest name in his administration, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, who will assume the position of North American ambassador to the United Nations.
In the past, Trump has referred to the New York congresswoman, who is part of the party leadership, as “a republican star“. He states that he feels “honored to appoint her to the position,” in a statement cited by the North American press, after CNN had already proposed Steafanik’s name for the position at the UN.
But Stefanik’s relationship with the United Nations is far from peaceful. On the contrary, the Republican is an open critic of the organization, which she has accused of anti-Semitism on several occasions. Stefanik even appealed “to A complete reassessment of US funding to the United Nations.“, due to the UN’s support for the Palestinian Authority, which Stefanik said was “a constant anti-Semitic attack on Israel’s right to exist,” in a statement published on October 16 of this year. The congresswoman was also one of the biggest defenders of blocking funds to the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), due to accusations of links to Hamas.
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Criticism of anti-Semitism extends from the United Nations to American universities. Stefanik stood out for her tough positions he took during congressional hearings of several university presidentsin December of last year. What was at stake were the pro-Palestine protests that occupied many of the country’s university campuses. Stefanik accused the deans of not doing enough to stop protesters’ “anti-Semitic hate speech” and demanded their resignation; the heads of the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard even resigned shortly after the hearing.
Stefanik was also named as one of the possible names to run for the White House alongside Trump this year; the vice president position ended up being filled by JD Vance. But support for the president was not always a certainty. The congresswoman was elected from the New York district in 2014, becoming the youngest woman to reach Congress. His “independent thinking” and “moderate positions” were highly praised.including skins spokesman of the House of Representatives at the time, who described her as a “builder, a feat that is not easy in an era where politics is based on attacking people,” CNN recalls.
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His position on Trump was changing, justified by the candidate’s popularity in his electoral district. Even so, he refused to support the presidential candidate by name, in his first election, in 2016, stating only that he supported “the party’s candidate,” recalls the Wall Street Journal.
His closeness to Trump has increased in the last eight years. In the Republican’s second bid for the White House, in 2020, Stefanik broke the record for collecting donations for her campaign. In May 2021, he replaced Liz Cheney as head of the Republican Party following the latter’s criticism of Donald Trump. And in 2022, He was the first person in Congress to support his re-election to the White Houseeven before the Republican publicly announced his intention to run.
Source: Observadora
