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Updated November 11, 2024, at 6:30 p.m.
President-elect Donald Trump nominated Rep. Elise M. Stefanik ’06 to serve as the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, elevating a longtime ally to one of the top foreign policy posts in his administration.
“I am honored to nominate Chairwoman Elise Stefanik to serve in my Cabinet as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations,” Trump said in a statement on Monday. “Elise is an incredibly strong, tough, and smart America First fighter.”
If confirmed by the Senate, Stefanik will become one of the highest-ranking Harvard affiliates to serve in the incoming Trump administration. Stefanik served on the Harvard Institute of Politics’ Senior Advisory Committee, but she was removed from the board after challenging the certification of President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.
The No. 4 House Republican gained further prominence last year for her questioning of former Harvard President Claudine Gay during the House Committee on Education and the Workforce’s hearing about antisemitism on college campuses.
In a now-viral five-minute exchange, Stefanik individually asked Gay, University of Pennsylvania President Elizabeth Magill, MIT President Sally A. Kornbluth if calling for the genocide of Jewish students would violate university policies.
The university presidents each said the answer depended on the context — a response that cost Kornbluth and eventually Gay their jobs.
But the hearing also cemented Stefanik’s reputation as a fierce opponent of Harvard and other elite universities, especially on issues of protest and antisemitism.
Two days later, Stefanik announced the committee’s investigation into Harvard’s response to antisemitism. That investigation, which has since been expanded to a House-wide probe into several colleges and universities, has led to a series of embarrassing reports that reveal internal deliberations among Harvard officials with subpoenaed emails, text messages, and internal documents.
Trump himself praised Stefanik for her questions, calling her “very smart” at a New York Young Republican Club event in December, shortly after Magill resigned as president at UPenn.
“I guess they’re all gonna be losing their jobs within the next day or two, but one down, two to go,” Trump said.
In a Monday statement on X celebrating the nomination, Shabbos “Alexander” Kestenbaum — a recent Harvard Divinity School graduate who has been among the most vocal critics of the University — said Stefanik offered to help Kestenbaum respond to antisemitism on Harvard’s campus after he testified before the committee in February.
“During my first congressional testimony, Elise Stefanik pulled me aside and gave me her contact info. ‘If the Harvard Jewish community is ever in trouble, call me,’” Kestenbaum wrote.
“Stefanik exposed the moral bankruptcy at the Ivy Leagues and have no doubt she will do the same at the UN,” he added.
In the year since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, Stefanik has emerged as one of the most vocal supporters of Israel in Congress. She has also fiercely criticized the United Nations in recent months, arguing that the organization has not sufficiently supported Israel.
In an October statement responding to efforts by the Palestinian Authority to expel Israel from the United Nations, Stefanik suggested the U.S. should consider revoking funding to the UN.
“Should the Palestinian Authority succeed in their antisemitic pursuit, it would result in a complete reassessment of U.S. funding of the United Nations,” she wrote.
Stefanik has also called for defunding the United Nations Relief Works Agency, which provides humanitarian aid in Palestine.
Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, also congratulated Stefanik on X Monday, writing that her “unwavering moral clarity is needed more than ever.”
The role of ambassador to the UN has previously been seen as a gateway to higher office in Washington. Past ambassadors have gone on to serve as administrator to the U.S. Agency for International Development, secretary of state, and even president.
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley served as UN ambassador in Trump’s first administration, acquiring the foreign policy credentials to challenge her former boss in the 2024 Republican primary.
In addition to serving on the Committee on Education and the Workforce, Stefanik is also a member of the Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Armed Services Committee — two major national security congressional committees.
Stefanik said in a statement on Monday that she was honored to be Trump’s pick for U.S. envoy to the UN.
“During my conversation with President Trump, I shared how deeply humbled I am to accept his nomination and that I look forward to earning the support of my colleagues in the United States Senate,” Stefanik wrote.
“America continues to be the beacon of the world, but we expect and must demand that our friends and allies be strong partners in the peace we seek,” she added. “The work ahead is immense as we see antisemitism skyrocketing coupled with four years of catastrophically weak U.S. leadership that significantly weakened our national security and diminished our standing in the eyes of both allies and adversaries.”
—Staff writer Cam E. Kettles can be reached at cam.kettles@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @cam_kettles.
