Robert Wood, who recently retired after nearly 40 years in the foreign service including most recently as deputy U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in the Biden administration, knows firsthand that Washington’s next envoy to the global body will have to swim upstream to curb Jew-hatred.
“One of the first things that the next permanent representative will need to focus on is ridding that building of antisemitism, because the entire building is hemorrhaging with it,” Wood told JNS.
The diplomat, who served in Brussels, Geneva, Vienna, Berlin, Mexico City, Lagos, Islamabad, Pretoria and stateside in Foggy Bottom, told JNS that a core reason for the United States to remain engaged at Turtle Bay is that it “is going to take a very, very strong effort by the entire team in New York, with, of course, backing in Washington, to get rid of that antisemitism.”
“It’s just flowing through the veins of that organization right now,” he said. “So you’re going to need somebody who’s going to want to fight that, be willing to do it.”
Wood declined to discuss candidates, whose names have surfaced in news reports and some of whom U.S. President Donald Trump recently name-checked. He told JNS that at a minimum, the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations would need to have foreign policy experience to be effective. Prior experience with the United Nations would also be a plus, because the U.N. learning curve is “extremely steep,” he said.
The retired diplomat also said, echoing the approach that the Department of Government Efficiency has taken under Elon Musk, that there must be “a thorough review of the entire U.N. system to make sure that it is getting the taxpayers’ money’s worth.”
Many think that “the U.N. isn’t living up to what it was supposed to be and it is just kind of a waste of taxpayer money,” he told JNS. But he thinks that Washington must commit to reforming the global body rather than abandoning it, as Trump has significantly cut financial commitments to the global body and some Republicans have called for the United States to exit the United Nations altogether.
On Monday, Trump mentioned David Friedman, the U.S. ambassador to Israel during Trump’s first presidency, and Ric Grenell, who serves as the president’s special envoy for special missions, among other people, who, he said, were interested in the role.
“We have a lot of people that have asked about it and would like to do it,” Trump told reporters from the Oval Office on Monday. “David Friedman, Ric Grenell and maybe 30 other people.”
On March 27, Trump announced that he had withdrawn Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) as his nominee for U.S. envoy to the global body, as Republicans feared their already-thin House majority could dwindle further between Stefanik’s resignation and the special election to replace her.
New York Democrats, who control the governor’s mansion and the state house, had said that they intended to drag the election process out, and the White House reportedly feared a negative result in a pair of House special elections in Florida on Tuesday, though both Republican candidates claimed victory—albeit by margins that concern many Republicans.
“As we advance our America First agenda, it is essential that we maintain every Republican seat in Congress,” Trump stated when he withdrew Stefanik’s nomination. “With a very tight majority, I don’t want to take a chance on anyone else running for Elise’s seat.”
Trump’s former bankruptcy lawyer, who now runs a nonprofit advocating for Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, Friedman is seen as having been instrumental in Trump’s decision to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and recognize the latter as Israel’s capital.
More recently, he hailed Trump’s plan for Washington to take over Gaza but criticized his former boss for hosting antisemitic musician Kanye West in Florida. JNS sought comment from Friedman, who told JNS months ago, before Stefanik’s nomination, that he would be honored to serve in whatever capacity Trump requested.
Asked specifically then about the U.N. role, Friedman told JNS that Trump should treat the global body like a bankruptcy, with a one-to-two-year window for the United Nations to get its house in order. Otherwise, he would tell Trump to “liquidate it.”
Grenell, whose current portfolio includes everything from wildfire relief to prisoner release talks to oversight of the Kennedy Center, told Newsmax that he is not interested.
“This is not something that I want to do. I’ve got plenty to do,” he told the publication.
Other names
Ellie Cohanim, Morgan Ortagus and Elizabeth Pipko are among other names that have been mentioned with respect to the U.S. envoy position.
An Iranian-born Jew and former State Department deputy special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, Cohanim is a former television broadcaster and executive who has been omnipresent on television supporting Trump’s policies.
Cohanim was already vetted for Trump administration roles, a source with knowledge told JNS, adding that Trump would see Cohanim’s heavy presence on the campaign trail helping lead the Jewish Women for Trump group and her personal background as pluses.
“I think if you’re going to make a statement with this pick, I think picking a Persian Jew whose family fled the ayatollahs, who has the bona fides from the first term, to speak to antisemitism directly, to speak directly to Iran, she comes out of central casting,” the source told JNS. (The source added that Trump’s selection of Mike Pence and JD Vance as his running mates also seemed to come “out of central casting.”)
Trump’s deputy special envoy for the Middle East and former State Department spokesperson, Ortagus has not said publicly if she is interested in the U.N. role.
JNS has also heard Pipko’s name mentioned in connection to the envoy role.
Pipko, the former Republican National Committee spokeswoman, is an author and model who was also heavily involved in Jewish Women for Trump, and who helped found the so-called “Jexodus” movement to shift Jewish voters from Democratic to Republican.
Her father, Roman Pipko, has been nominated as U.S. ambassador to Estonia. His daughter told JNS that while she is not actively pursuing the U.N. position, she’s honored by what she said were many people who have told her that they encourage her candidacy.
“I have fought for President Trump’s vision since 2016. I knew before he ever became president just how powerful he would be at taking on institutions like the U.N., which desperately needs a fighter,” she told JNS.
“Over the next four years, wherever President Trump believes I should be that fighter for our country, I proudly will be,” she said.