President Trump plans to appoint L. Brent Bozell III, a conservative media critic and a strong Israeli defender, as a US ambassador to South Africa, according to Congress’s website.
Mr Bozell had previously been submitted to lead the United States World Service, but the candidate retired on Monday, the Congress website said.
Mr Bozell’s name was one of the many that were submitted to the Senate on Tuesday for various ambassadors, according to two government officials, who demanded anonymity because they had not been authorized to speak publicly about the process. The Foreign Ministry declined to comment.
Mr Bozell, who must be confirmed by the Senate, will enter the role at a time when the relationship between South Africa and the United States is worse in recent memory. Trump’s administration recently sought the South African ambassador to the United States after criticizing Mr Trump during a webinar.
Trump’s administration criticized the South African government for its close relationship with Iran and his harsh attitude against Israel, including the execution of a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for the Gaza War.
It was not immediately clear whether Mr Bozell had ties with South Africa. He is the founder and president of the Media Research Center, a surveillance team aimed at the television hosts of the network and the mainstream media charges of liberal bias. Once a critic of Mr Trump, Mr Bozell is now firmly in his corner. His son, Leo Brent Bozell IV, was one of the nearly 1,600 people who were convicted and convicted on January 6, 2021, an attack on the Capitol, but gave Mr Trump.
Mr Bozell was a vocal supporter of the Israeli government. After Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023, Mr Bozell published a call for raising funds for Israel on his center’s website, saying that he usually did not appeal for external reasons, but made an exception because “this is an emergency”.
“Israel struggles for its own existence,” he wrote.
The Trump government also accused the South African government of distinguishing the population of white minorities. Mr Trump issued an executive mandate last month, which suspended all US aid in South Africa and offered the refugee regime to Afrikaners, a white ethnic minority that once led the apartheid government.
Elon Musk, who was born in South Africa, has often published messages about X that discourages the South African government, falsely claiming that there were mass murders of white farmers. He has also claimed that his satellite business, Starlink, is not allowed to operate in South Africa because it is not black. (The country requires foreign companies to provide ownership shares to historically disadvantaged groups.)
South African officials have been convicted by the attacks of Mr Trump, Mr Musk and Foreign Minister Marco Rubio, saying they are based on misinformation.
