President Donald Trump said Friday will name State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert to succeed Nikki Haley as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
Nauert lacks the foreign policy experience typical for the role but is seen as a close ally of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. She is a former journalist who has worked at ABC News and Fox News, including as a presenter on Fox & Friends, a show preferred by the president.
The announcement does not come as a surprise. Bloomberg News first reported the president's offer to Nauert on Thursday. Nauert had accepted the offer, according to the outlet. The president confirmed the report on Friday to reporters on the White House South Lawn.
In choosing Nauert, Trump passed over other top choices, including Goldman Sachs executive Dina Powell, ambassador to Canada Kelly Craft, failed U.S. Senate candidate John James, and Richard Grenell, the U.S. ambassador to Germany and former U.S. spokesperson at the UN.
Nauert was named State Department spokeswoman last year and was promoted to acting undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs in March. Her new role will require Senate confirmation.
Haley, the former two-term governor of South Carolina, was named U.N. ambassador shortly after Trump's 2016 election. In October, she announced that she would be departing from the role at the end of the year.
An aide on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee told NBC News it was "highly unlikely" that any nominee would be able to complete the necessary paperwork and meetings to advance to a hearing before the end of the year. The paperwork required includes financial disclosures and a questionnaire from the committee members.