President Trump has selected Andrew Puzder, a former fast-food chain CEO who he attempted to install in his first White House Cabinet, as his pick for ambassador to the European Union.
Trump praised Puzder, the former chief of CKE restaurants, as steering fast-food chains like Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s out of “serious financial difficulty” and said in a post on social media that he will “do an excellent job” as ambassador to the EU.
Puzder welcomed the announcement in a post on the social media site X late Wednesday, saying “It will be an honor to help implement the Trump administration’s policies internationally. Together, we will protect America’s interests in the EU.”
It is the second time that Trump has tapped Puzder for a top administration role, after the former restaurant chain executive withdrew as nominee for Labor secretary during Trump’s first term in the face of Republican opposition.
Puzder withdrew his nomination to lead the Labor Department in 2017 before having a confirmation hearing, with multiple GOP senators at the time appearing set to oppose him amid allegations of past spousal abuse and his employment of an undocumented immigrant as a housekeeper. He denied the resurfaced allegations and his former wife had retracted the claims.
As nominee for ambassador to the EU, Puzder will have to appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which will handle 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 as being “very, very bad” to the U.S. and threatening tariffs “to get fairness.”
Trump has honed in on a trade deficit with the bloc and called for the EU to buy more U.S. oil and gas.
While some of the tariff threats could trigger a trade war with the bloc, some European officials are hoping Trump can pressure Kremlin-friendly countries in the bloc to wean off of Russian energy resources in exchange for U.S. energy. This includes Hungary, its Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a close ally to Trump; and Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico.
Another area where Trump is likely to press the EU is over support for Ukraine. On the campaign trail, Trump consistently criticized European countries as failing to take a leading role in supporting Kyiv in its defensive war against Russia.
While the U.S. outpaces Europe in military contributions to Ukraine, Europe as a whole has provided more total assistance, according to the Ukraine Support Tracker.
Europe has contributed almost $130 billion in assistance to Ukraine compared to about $92 billion since February 2022, the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, according to the tracker.
Another major area of U.S. and EU relations is how the bloc deals with China, with the U.S. concerned over trade and business deals with Beijing that either harm American businesses or pose national security threats over sharing of critical technologies and telecommunication services, among other issues.
