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Updated April 28, 2026 — 8:36am,first published 8:13am
Washington: US President Donald Trump has nominated a former Republican congressman to become the next American ambassador to Australia, 15 months into his presidency.
Trump named former Virginia representative and academic David Brat for the role on Monday (US time). As per protocol, the nominee must be confirmed by the US Senate before taking up the job.
There has been no US ambassador in Canberra since Caroline Kennedy departed in late 2024, although it is not unusual for presidents to take some time to appoint ambassadors to Australia.
A conservative Republican who was part of the Tea Party movement, Brat came to prominence in 2014 when he achieved what The New York Times called “one of the most stunning primary election upsets in congressional history”, defeating the Republican leader of the House of Representatives, Eric Cantor, in the Virginia district.
He campaigned largely on the grounds that Cantor was not conservative enough on the issue of immigration. Cantor had been serving his seventh term.
Brat, 61, was born in Detroit and gained a bachelor of arts from Michigan’s Hope College, before obtaining his masters in divinity at Princeton Theological Seminary, and a PhD.
He went on to become an economics professor at Virginia’s Randolph–Macon College, and returned to academia after losing the 2018 election. He lost to Democrat Abigail Spanberger, who is now the governor of Virginia.
There had been speculation in Washington that Trump was looking to appoint a wealthy business executive or someone from the entertainment industry to be his ambassador to Australia.
Multiple sources also said they had heard Trump encountered difficulty finding someone who was happy to live in Canberra.
In October, days after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s visit to the White House, Trump told this masthead he had one or two people in mind for the job, and he wanted to find someone Albanese would “like”.
More to come
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