Trump taps more business leaders as ambassadors
President-elect Donald Trump has selected two more wealthy business leaders for ambassadorships.
He has tapped health care executive Benjamin Leon Jr. for the post in Spain and chosen entrepreneur Joe Popolo to head to the Netherlands. Both positions will require Senate confirmation, but that should not prove a major hurdle given that Republicans control the upper chamber.
Leon has made his fortune in the health care industry. He’s an avid equestrian and philanthropist, according to online biographies. Much of Leon's work and philanthropy has been concentrated in Florida.
“He came to the U.S. from Communist Cuba at 16-years-old, with only Five Dollars in his pocket, and proceeded to build his company, Leon Medical Centers, into an incredible business,” Trump wrote Thursday night when announcing the position.
Popolo’s resume includes leading private investment firm Charles & Potomac Capital. He also spent years in the live events field, notably as president and CEO of the Freeman Company, whose work has included various roles in trade shows. His online biographies note that he’s active in philanthropic and entrepreneurial ventures.
Trump has selected a number of business leaders — including donors to his campaign and broader Republican causes — to serve as ambassadors, special envoys and in other roles.
It’s normal for presidents from both parties to name people from the private sector as ambassadors, often as a reward for being donors. These so-called political appointee ambassadors are chosen alongside ambassadors drawn from the ranks of career U.S. diplomats.
But Trump went further than his immediate predecessors in his first term when choosing political appointee ambassadors. While most modern presidents have given around a third of the roles to political appointees, Trump crossed 40 percent, according to the American Foreign Service Association, the diplomats’ union.