Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
President Trump has tapped Andrew Puzder, a former fast-food chain CEO he tried to install in his first White House cabinet, as ambassador to the European Union.
Trump praised Puzder, CKE’s former head of restaurants, for leading fast-food chains like Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s from “severe financial difficulties” and said in a social media post that he will “do an excellent job” as an EU ambassador.
Puzder welcomed the announcement in a post on social network X on Wednesday afternoon, saying: “It will be an honor to help implement the policies of the Trump administration internationally. Together, we will protect the interests of States United in the EU”.
It’s the second time Trump has tapped Puzder for a top administration post, after the former restaurant chain executive withdrew as a candidate for Labor secretary during Trump’s first term amid Republican opposition.
host withdrew his nomination to lead the Labor Department in 2017 before having a confirmation hearing, with several Republican senators at the time appearing poised to oppose him amid allegations of past spousal abuse and his employment of an undocumented immigrant roles as a housewife. He denied the resurfaced accusations and so did his ex-wife retracted the claims.
As a candidate for ambassador to the EU, Puzder will have to appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which will be responsible for an initial vote on his nomination.
The nomination comes as Trump has put the EU in his economic crosshairs for his second term, criticizing the 27-nation bloc for being “very, very bad” for the US and threatening tariffs “to achieve fairness “.
Trump has perfected the trade deficit with the bloc and called for the EU to buy more oil and gas from the US.
While some of the tariff threats could trigger a trade war with the bloc, some European officials hope Trump can pressure Kremlin-friendly countries in the bloc to part with Russian energy resources in exchange for US energy. That includes Hungary, its prime minister Viktor Orban, a close Trump ally; and the Prime Minister of Slovakia, Robert Fico.
Another area where Trump is likely to put pressure on the EU is support for Ukraine. During the campaign, Trump constantly criticized European countries for not playing a prominent role in supporting Kiev in its defensive war against Russia.
While the US surpasses Europe in military contributions to Ukraine, Europe as a whole has provided more total assistance, according to the Ukraine Support Follower.
Europe has provided almost $130 billion in aid to Ukraine compared with about $92 billion since February 2022, the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, according to the tracker.
Another important area of US-EU relations is how the bloc deals with China, with the US concerned about trade and trade deals with Beijing that harm US companies or pose national security threats to share critical technologies and telecommunications services, among other issues.
