Donald Trump names new ambassador to Australia

Donald Trump names former Republican congressman as new US ambassador to AustraliaBy foreign affairs correspondent Stephen DziedzicTopic:Foreign Affairs4h ago4 hours agoTue 28 Apr 2026 at 5:10amDavid Brat has been appointed as the next US ambassador to Australia. (Reuters: Yuri Gripas)In short:Former Virginia congressman David Brat has been named by the White House to be the next US ambassador to Australia.The appointment ends the 15-month wait for US President Donald Trump to fill the role.What's next?Mr Brat will need to be confirmed by the US Senate before he can take up the position in Australia.abc.net.au/news/donald-trump-white-house-david-brat-ambassador-australia/106615148Link copiedShareShare articleDonald Trump's pick as the next US ambassador to Australia has suggested that NATO provoked Russia's invasion of Ukraine, as well as accusing US intelligence agencies of orchestrating a vast conspiracy against Republicans.The White House announced this morning that it had nominated David Brat to fill the ambassador's post in Canberra, which has been vacant for about 15 months.Mr Brat shot to prominence in 2014 as a Tea Party insurgent when he ousted then Republican leader of the House of Representatives Eric Cantor in a primary, before being defeated by a Democrat in 2018.The former US congressman, conservative economist and firebrand MAGA pundit will have to be confirmed by the US Senate before he can take up the job.Mr Brat has been a regular guest on Steve Bannon's War Room podcast, where he has ventilated Christian nationalist views that will sit uneasily with the Albanese government.David Brat has been a regular guest on Steve Bannon's War Room podcast. (Supplied: The War Room podcast)In 2022, he also urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as a "Christian brother" to accept Russian demands in the wake of Vladimir Putin's invasion, instead of committing to a war which would "devastate" Ukraine."There's no way Putin is going to allow our aggressive military power on their border, especially when it abuts the Black Sea and then goes out past Turkey to get to the major waterways," he said."Ukraine's a buffer, and there's no way they're going to be a NATO country, there's no way they're going to be a EU country."However, he also said that the "good news" was that Russia and China had "a massive demographic problem, they've got massive structural economic problems" which would see them fade away as challengers to the US.In 2016, while he was still in Congress, Mr Brat also gave an interview to controversial media personality Alex Jones, who promoted the conspiracy theory that the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax.There is no evidence that Mr Brat shares Mr Jones's view about Sandy Hook.And last year, Mr Brat called the Biden administration's investigation into electoral interference a "conspiracy 1,000 times worse than Watergate", as well as accusing the CIA and FBI of orchestrating a vast conspiracy to spy on "hundreds of Republican groups"."The Strategy was clear, a threat to the entire system had emerged in the person of Donald J Trump," he wrote on the conservative social media platform GETTR."The Matrix was in danger, the entire Deep State and Administrative State were under threat, so all hands on deck."This threat, if you remember, also included the UNI-party, the Republican and Democratic leadership, and Sheep class, [who] were totally against Trump."No obvious connection to AustraliaMr Brat has a…

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