Donald Trump has invited former State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus to join his new administration — but he doesn’t seem thrilled about it.
The president-elect said Friday that he would appoint Ortagus, who was the public face of the State Department for three years in his first administration, to be deputy special presidential envoy for Middle East Peace.
Trump noted in a post on Truth Social that “early on Morgan fought me for three years, but hopefully has learned her lesson.”
He didn’t provide any specifics about their disagreement. In 2016, Ortagus criticized Trump’s isolationist views, but became a vocal Trump supporter when he won the Republican nomination at the time.
In a note that might not install a lot of confidence in his pick, Trump also wrote that “these things usually don’t work out, but she has strong Republican support, and I’m not doing this for me, I’m doing it for them. Let’s see what happens.”
Ortagus will work with Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff.
A Naval Reserve Officer, Ortagus previously served as an intelligence analyst at the Treasury Department in the office of intelligence and analysis, where she worked on Middle east issues.
