President-elect Donald Trump announced he is appointing Morgan Ortagus to serve in his incoming administration as deputy special presidential envoy for Middle East Peace on Friday.
Ortagus would serve under Steven Witkoff, who Trump announced in November was his choice for special envoy to the Middle East.
In his announcement on Friday, Trump noted that while he and Ortagus once shared opposing views in the past, he hopes she will “be an asset to Steve, a great leader and talent, as we seek to bring calm and prosperity to a very troubled region.”
“Early on Morgan fought me for three years, but hopefully has learned her lesson. These things usually don’t work out, but she has strong Republican support, and I’m not doing this for me, I’m doing it for them. Let’s see what happens…I expect great results, and soon,” Trump said.
Ortagus (pictured above) served in the first Trump administration as spokesperson at the Department of State.
Before that, Ortagus worked at the Department of the Treasury as a financial intelligence analyst and, from 2010-2011, was the Deputy U.S. Treasury Attaché to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Ortagus is also an active U.S. Navy Reserve Intelligence Officer.
In 2022, Ortagus often spoke with The Tennessee Star’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy while she was running for Congress to represent Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District.
Ortagus’ bid for Congress came to an end when she and two other candidates were removed from the ballot by the Tennessee Republican Party, based on the party’s bylaw, which requires candidates to have voted in three of the last four GOP primaries and actively participate in state or local Republican parties.
Despite being endorsed by Trump at the time, Ortagus was often referred to as a “carpetbagger” candidate, considering her residency status and lack of voting in a single election in Tennessee.
Ortagus also famously failed to answer basic questions about the district she was vying to represent in an interview with Leahy on his radio show at the time.
– – –
Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Morgan Ortagus” by Morgan Ortagus.
