President Trump is reportedly considering John James for United States ambassador to the United Nations. It’s a shot in the dark, but it might not be a terrible idea.
Despite his total lack of real political experience, the recently defeated senatorial candidate has genuine star potential. He served in the military for nearly a decade, including in multiple tours of Operation Iraqi Freedom, and then embarked on a successful career as a businessman and job creator. At just 37 years old and with negligible party support, James lost to incumbent Senator Debbie Stabenow by just 6.5 points.
Plus, the Republican Party is currently starving for charisma, effective conservative messengers, and diversity. James is charming, inspirational, and eloquent, and of course he’s black.
Okay, the objective observer may note. Those are fine credentials for Congress, but for international diplomacy?
Well, just consider that perhaps experience is overrated. Samantha Power may have been one of the most qualified ambassadors in a generation, thanks to her groundbreaking and Pulitzer-winning book on genocide and experience in Obama’s State Department. Yet her tenure was atrocious. Under her watch, the United States allowed Bashar Assad to massacre his own people, effectively gave Russia free rein over Crimea, and allowed attacks on Israel to escalate.
By comparison, Nikki Haley was relatively unqualified. She became ambassador with no real experience in foreign policy, and she’s leaving the post with an enviable record of accomplishment that has many discussing her as a future presidential candidate.
These are anecdotal points of reference, sure, but considering the other people Trump could nominate, James doesn’t seem like a terrible bet. Our ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, would also be a fine pick, but one with unnecessary political baggage, and Heather Nauert, the State Department spokeswoman whom Trump is reportedly also considering, has a record even thinner than James’.
Nauert used to host “Fox & Friends.” James used to defend our country overseas.
Furthermore, it would be a wise investment for the Republican Party as a whole, assuming James doesn’t bomb on the job. Representing American interests in the U.N. involves more broad political chess than the detail-driven statesmanship of the State Department. And as Haley demonstrated, true grit and convictions are more than enough to overcome limited foreign policy experience.
If James rode the momentum of Haley’s successes and ending his own tenure on a high note, he would be perfectly positioned to enter the top echelons of the GOP, perhaps even aim for the presidency. It may seem far fetched, but we did once put a reality television star with no prior political experience in the White House. Today, anything is possible.
