Trump appoints former NFL star Herschel Walker as ambassador to the Bahamas | Trump administration

Donald Trump has appointed former American football star and failed Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker as US ambassador to the Bahamas.

“Herschel has served for decades as an ambassador for our nation’s youth, our men and women in the military, and athletes at home and abroad,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform. “(He will) make Georgia (Walker’s home state) and our entire nation proud because we know you will always put AMERICA first!”

Elsewhere in his post, Trump praised Walker as “an NFL great” and also noted that he was a member of the U.S. bobsled team at the 1992 Winter Olympics.

There is currently no acting US ambassador to the Bahamas.

Walker, 62, previously served as co-chair of Trump’s Health, Nutrition and Fitness Council in his first term. Notably, he has no diplomatic experience, a trait he shares with several other Trump ambassador candidates. He rose to political prominence in 2022 after Trump selected him as the Republican candidate for a Georgia Senate race in which he challenged incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock.

Walker was ultimately unsuccessful after his campaign was mired in scandal.

Despite his anti-abortion beliefs, even in cases of rape or incest, allegations emerged during his campaign that he paid for abortions for two former girlfriends. His ex-wife also claimed he held a gun to her head and threatened to kill her.

He was also forced to clarify to the public how many children there are. News reports in June 2022 revealed that Walker had two additional children that he had not previously spoken about publicly – these reports followed Walker repeatedly criticizing absentee fathers, particularly in Black households. He later made a statement to the New York Times: “I have four children. Three sons and a daughter. They are not “unknown” – they are my children. I support them all and love them all. I have never denied my children.”

His campaign also made many false claims that were later debunked, including Walker’s claim that he graduated from the University of Georgia in the top 1% of his class (which he did not) and that he had served in law enforcement (which he did). not).

Walker’s relationship with Trump dates back to the early 1980s, when he played for the New Jersey Generals, a US Football League team then owned by the future president.