President-elect Donald Trump gave his latest nominee a less-than-enthusiastic rollout in an announcement Friday.
In a press release and post to his platform Truth Social, Trump said he had chosen Morgan Ortagus to be his deputy special presidential envoy for Middle East peace. But Trump made clear he wasn’t excited about his own pick.
“Early on Morgan fought me for three years, but hopefully has learned her lesson,” Trump said. “These things usually don’t work out, but she has strong Republican support, and I’m not doing this for me, I’m doing it for them. Let’s see what happens.”
Trump added that Ortagus would “hopefully” be an asset to Steve Witkoff, the billionaire real estate executive Trump tapped to be his special envoy to the Middle East.
Ortagus served as a State Department spokesperson during Trump’s first presidency, under then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. An active U.S. Navy Reserve intelligence officer, she’d previously been a contributor to Fox News, commenting on national security issues.
Trump didn’t detail any disagreements he’d had with Ortagus when he announced her nomination on Friday. But when he was running for president in 2016, Ortagus knocked Trump for his “isolationist” foreign policy views, and said his mockery of people with disabilities was “disgusting.”
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Ortagus ran for Congress in Tennessee’s 5th District in 2022, receiving Trump’s endorsement, but the Tennessee Republican Party removed her from the primary ballot since she had only recently moved to the state.
Despite Trump’s skepticism of his own nominee, the president-elect wished Ortagus well working in his next administration.
“Good luck Morgan!” he said.