Donald Trump has chosen the former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee as the next US ambassador to Israel and a Fox News host to be his new defense secretary.
Huckabee has a track record of hardline, occasionally provocative, pro-Israel rhetoric and previously said Israel has a rightful claim to the West Bank, which he refers to by its Hebrew and biblical name of Judea and Samaria.
The territory is claimed by Palestinians as part of a putative future state but is dotted with multiple Israeli settlements that are not recognised under international law. Huckabee has refused to call the settlements by that name, insisting that they be called “communities” or neighbourhoods. He has also denied that the West Bank, seized by Israel from Jordan in the 1967 six-day war, is under military occupation.
Posting on his Truth Social network, Trump predicted Huckabee, an evangelical Christian, would “work tirelessly to bring about peace in the Middle East”.
“He loves Israel and the people of Israel, and likewise, the people of Israel love him,” wrote Trump, who called Huckabee “a great public servant.”
Later on Tuesday, Trump said he was nominating a Fox News host, the army veteran Pete Hegseth, to lead the world’s largest and most powerful military, in an appointment that stunned the Pentagon and the broader defense world. Hegseth, a former army national guard captain who is well-known in conservative circles, has no experience in government and is untested on the global stage.
Hegseth’s appointment as defense secretary could bring sweeping changes to the military, as he has made it clear on his show and in interviews that, like Trump, he is stridently opposed to “woke” programs that promote equity and inclusion. He has also questioned the role of women in combat and advocated pardoning service members charged with war crimes.
A staunch conservative who embraces Trump’s “America First” policies, the 44-year-old Hegseth has pushed for making the military more lethal. During an interview on The Shawn Ryan Show podcast, he said allowing women to serve in combat damaged that effort.
Also announced on Tuesday was Trump’s pick of the former director of national intelligence John Ratcliffe as director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Ratcliffe, a close ally of Trump, served as director of national intelligence at the end of his first term.
Ratcliffe was confirmed as the country’s top spy in May 2020, eight months before Trump left office. A former member of the House of Representatives and US attorney for Texas, he received no support from Senate Democrats during his confirmation.
As director of national intelligence, Ratcliffe was accused by Democrats and former intelligence officials of declassifying intelligence for use by Trump and his Republican allies to attack political opponents, including Joe Biden, then Trump’s rival for the presidency – a charge Ratcliffe’s office has denied.
Additionally, the president-elect had picked real estate investor and campaign donor Steve Witkoff to be his special envoy to the Middle East. Witkoff is a real estate investor, landlord, and founder of the Witkoff Group, which he started in 1977.
Continuing his Tuesday evening appointments, Trump announced Governor Kristi Noem of South Dakota would head the homeland security department, a key role overseeing the nation’s immigration system.
Immigration enforcement has been a central focus of Trump’s agenda, with commitments to tighten border control and implement a large-scale deportation initiative across the country.
On social media, Trump described Noem as “very strong on border security”, highlighting her decision as governor to deploy national guard troops to the Texas-Mexico border.
Huckabee’s appointment is likely to signal a return to the explicitly pro-Israel posture of Trump’s first administration, when he relocated the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in a move decried by Palestinians as damaging to peace prospects.
While Israel claims Jerusalem as its indivisible capital, Palestinians lay claim to the eastern part of the city as their future capital.
Speaking to CNN in 2017, Huckabee – who has paid several visits to Israeli settlements – made his position clear.
“The only people who have ever had Yerushalayim [Jerusalem’s Hebrew name] as a capital have been the Jews,” he said. “Nobody else has ever made this city a capital, ever. So it shouldn’t even be controversial.”
He was equally uncompromising on the issue of West Bank, declining to use the term.
“I think Israel has title deed to Judea and Samaria,” he said. “There are certain words I refuse to use. There is no such thing as a West Bank. It’s Judea and Samaria. There’s no such thing as a settlement. They’re communities, they’re neighbourhoods, they’re cities. There’s no such thing as an occupation.”
Huckabee’s zealous support of Israel has occasionally offended Israelis and Jewish groups.
He drew criticism in 2015 during an abortive presidential bid after accusing Barack Obama of marching Jews “to the door of the oven” by signing a nuclear deal with Iran.
The comment drew a rebuke from Ron Dermer, Israeli ambassador to Washington at the time, and the Anti-Defamation League, an advocacy group dedicated to combating antisemitism.
Nevertheless, Huckabee was unrepentant. “The response from Jewish people has been overwhelmingly positive,” he said.
Huckabee’s daughter, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the current Arkansas governor, served as White House press secretary in Trump’s first presidency.
