Announcing his deputy envoy for Middle East peace, President-elect Donald Trump made it clear that he chose Morgan Ortagus reluctantly.
Trump said he picked Ortagus, a spokesperson at the State Department when it was led by Mike Pompeo — who in 2024 considered running against him — because others lobbied hard for her.
“These things usually don’t work out,” the Friday statement from Trump read, “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.”
It is highly unusual for a president-elect to publicly express doubt in a choice for a political appointment.
“She will hopefully be an asset to Steve, a great leader and talent, as we seek to bring calm and prosperity to a very troubled region,” the announcement continued, referring to Steve Witkoff, Trump’s choice for Middle East envoy. “I expect great results, and soon!”
Like Witkoff, Ortagus, 42, is Jewish. But she has spent more time in the Middle East.
She served as an intelligence officer at the Treasury Department, where she worked on Middle East issues in 2010 and 2011. In 2016 she criticized Trump’s isolationist views but later became a supporter and drew his endorsement when she sought to run for Congress in Tennessee in 2022. In the past year she has hosted “The Morgan Ortagus Show” on SiriusXM, interviewing guests including Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, on news and foreign policy.
Houston businessman Fred Zeidman, a former chair of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council who has long known Ortagus, said she cares deeply about Israel, and Trump will discover that he made a strong choice in her.
“I assure him this woman can be trusted. She is one of the brightest, most articulate women I have met and she has great expertise in the Middle East,” said Zeidman, who raised money for Trump rival Nikki Haley in the 2024 Republican presidential primary.
Ortagus is a Navy Reserve officer and former evangelical Christian who converted to Judaism after she started attending Shabbat services in 2007 in Baghdad, where she served as a spokesperson for the USAID. Former Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg presided at her wedding to businessman Jonathan Weinberger in 2013 and a Conservative rabbi officiated at a Jewish ceremony that evening.
Laura Loomer, a Jewish right-wing provocateur who remained close to Trump through his reelection campaign despite concern from others in the Republican Party, lobbied against Ortagus last month, citing the wedding officiation by Ginsburg, a liberal, as evidence that Ortagus is insufficiently loyal to Trump. Loomer called Ortagus a “snake” and a “traitor” on social media.
Trump’s announcement makes clear that he will not forget Ortagus’ record under his first-term pick for secretary of state, with whom he frequently clashed: “Early on Morgan fought me for three years, but hopefully has learned her lesson.”
He also noted in the announcement that she was a member of the team that brokered the Abraham Accords between Israel and four Arab countries that, Trump said, “brought unprecedented Peace to the Middle East.”
Trump’s return to the presidency comes in a changed context, with Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza clouding prospects for peace in the region. Still, Biden administration officials say they have set the stage for a normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia in the near future.
Ortagus, a Florida native who was crowned Miss Florida Citrus when she was 20, has appeared frequently as a Fox News commentator.
She called her appointment “a dream come true” on X, formerly known as Twitter, and made no mention of Trump’s doubts: “The most important thing is that through President Trump, we bring peace and stability to a troubled region.”
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