Morgan Ortagus has taken a new job in the Trump administration after several months serving as a deputy envoy to the Middle East.
Starting this week, Ortagus began a senior political role at the United Nations, according to a source familiar with the matter. She previously oversaw Lebanon policy under Steve Witkoff, the lead Middle East envoy, and in Trump’s first term was his State Department spokeswoman.
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An Israeli outlet reported Ortagus’s impending departure earlier this month, though it was not yet clear if she would stay in the administration. She joins the U.N. team as Mike Waltz, Trump’s nominee for ambassador, awaits a confirmation vote in the Senate.
Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, told the Washington Examiner this month that he’s in contact with Waltz, though a hearing date has yet to be announced.
Ortagus is close with Waltz and other senior administration officials, and Trump said she came highly commended upon appointing her to the Middle East envoy post. At the time, Trump said he offered her the job despite claiming that “Morgan fought me for three years.”
She brings with her an intelligence background and is an active U.S. Navy Reserve officer. Her foreign policy experience includes serving as a deputy Treasury attache to Saudi Arabia.
She joins the U.N. team at a perilous time in the Middle East and beyond. Trump is weighing whether to join Israeli airstrikes on Iran, while the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine remain at an impasse.
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Trump has made repeated overtures to Russia, this week lamenting that the country lost its G7 membership after its 2014 annexation of Crimea. He has simultaneously fumed at the slow pace of peace talks, questioning if Russian President Vladimir Putin is genuinely interested in ending the war.
On Iran, the administration is weighing further negotiations over its nuclear program in a last-ditch effort to avert a wider conflict.