Trump nominates Kari Lake and Doug Mastriano to diplomatic posts

President Donald Trump has nominated Kari Lake and Doug Mastriano — two allies who waged failed bids for governor in battleground states — to diplomatic posts.

The White House announced Monday that Trump has nominated Lake to be ambassador to Jamaica and Mastriano to be ambassador to Slovakia. Both nominations require Senate confirmation.

Mastriano, who ran for governor of Pennsylvania, and Lake, who lost in Arizona, both embraced the president and his baseless election conspiracies and were rejected by voters in 2022.

“I look forward to representing our nation abroad, strengthening the friendship between our two countries, and advancing the interests of the American people,” Mastriano said in a statement posted online.

Lake, a former local TV personality who dismantled the Voice of America as Trump’s appointed head of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, said she was looking forward to her new role in the Caribbean.

“Jamaica is a country I know very well, full of incredible people, and if confirmed by the Senate, I look forward to strengthening the partnership between our nations, advancing America’s interests abroad, and building on the deep friendship shared by the American and Jamaican people,” she said in a social media post.

Mastriano said he will continue serving as a Pennsylvania state senator until his appointment is confirmed by the Senate. Lake’s future status leading the U.S. Agency for Global Media is unclear.

Mastriano’s appointment likely undermines an ascendant write-in campaign for him in Pennsylvania’s Republican gubernatorial primary, the race he won in 2022. The campaign, which Mastriano supported but was not involved with, threatened to pose an obstacle for Republicans’ preferred pick, state Treasurer Stacy Garrity, ahead of next Tuesday’s primary.

Lake earned an appointment to USGM last year after losing two statewide races in battleground Arizona. She lost to Gov. Katie Hobbs in 2022, then sought to succeed former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema in 2024, but lost to Ruben Gallego.

Shortly after joining USGM in a non-Senate confirmed role, Lake oversaw the gutting of Voice of America as part of the administration’s remaking of the federal workforce. By the end of the administration’s cuts last year, roughly 85 percent of the agency’s staff had been removed.

But Lake’s work at USGM hasn’t withstood legal scrutiny. A federal judge ruled in March that Lake’s tenure at the head of the agency was improper because she was not confirmed by the Senate. Later in March, the same judge ordered the Trump administration to reinstate the staff members who had been placed on leave.