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Fresh off dismantling Voice of America, the United States’ effort to broadcast journalism into countries without a free press, Kari Lake appears ready for her next mission. On Monday, President Donald Trump nominated the former Arizona news anchor and two-time failed candidate to be the next U.S. Ambassador to Jamaica.
On social media, Lake thanked Trump for the nod.
“Jamaica is a country I know very well, full of incredible people, and if confirmed by the Senate, I look forward to strengthening the partnership between our nations, advancing America’s interests abroad, and building on the deep friendship shared by the American and Jamaican people,” she wrote.
The nature of Lake’s self-professed connection to Jamaica is not entirely clear, though she appears to have vacationed there several times and has repeatedly expressed an affinity for the country. Phoenix New Times sent questions to both the State Department and the White House about Lake’s history with the Caribbean island nation. The State Department has not responded. White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers provided a statement, but it did not address the question of Lake’s association with Jamaica.
“Kari Lake will make an incredible ambassador to the great country of Jamaica, and the White House looks forward to her swift confirmation,” Rogers wrote.
Whether Lake will be confirmed remains to be seen. Republicans hold a small majority in the Senate, and not all Senate Republicans are Lake’s particular flavor of MAGA. But at any rate, the appointment signals an end to Lake’s tumultuous time at the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees Voice of America.
Trump initially signaled that he would tap Lake to lead Voice of America, but reversed course when it became clear he couldn’t do that unilaterally. (Instead, the VOA head is picked by a board that is approved by the Senate, and which currently lacks a quorum to do anything.) Plan B was to make Lake a senior advisor to USAGM, where she immediately began taking a wrecking ball to operations.
She put employees on leave en masse, paying them to do no work in lieu of firing them. Operations essentially ceased in many countries where VOA broadcasts, catching the organization flat-footed when, say, the U.S. and Israel bombed Iran in 2025. Along the way, Lake managed to somehow promote herself to acting CEO of USAGM. Earlier this year, a federal judge ruled that she had no legal authority to do that or really anything else she “accomplished” while at USAGM.
Just how Lake would perform as an ambassador — if confirmed — is an open question. She’s known far more for verbal and social media bomb-throwing than, you know, diplomacy, but perhaps a cushy gig in Jamaica will be what it takes to mellow her out.
After all, the appointment would seem to mean the end (for now) of Lake’s electoral ambitions. After losing the governorship to Katie Hobbs in 2022 and a Senate seat to Ruben Gallego in 2024 — one loss she denies occurred, and the other which she hardly ever shuts up about — Lake sparked speculation of another run when she bought a home in her native state of Iowa.
Then again, Iowa’s Senate race wouldn’t be until 2028. Depending on how things go in Kingston, maybe she’ll try for that brass ring of winning an election once more.
