WASHINGTON — A fight between the White House and State Department has broken out over ambassadorships after chief of staff Reince Priebus tried to circumvent Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to hand out the coveted posts to GOP loyalists, sources told The Post.
“Tillerson had a deal that if he were to come on board, he would have a decision on who the ambassadors were going to be,” a source said.
“The process was supposed to be where transition was going to give two names for each position and Tillerson was going to interview those people for each country — and Tillerson would make the decision,” the source explained.
But Priebus is using his Oval Office access to get President Trump to sign off on a list of some of the most desirable diplomatic postings, angering State Department officials, multiple sources confirmed.
So far, Priebus has pushed — and won sign-offs — for Miami Marlins owner Jeff Loria to head to France, GOP activist Georgette Mosbacher to Luxembourg, financier Lew Eisenberg to Italy and hedge funder Duke Buchan to Spain.
The list has led some at the State Department to worry Priebus has not properly vetted the diplomats-to-be.
“The people Reince has put up are problematic as well,” said a State Department official.
“Eventually, what Reince is doing has to be squared with process and reality. I’m not sure the White House is exactly stoked about this as they dig deeper into the background of these people,” he added.
Eisenberg, a Republican National Committee loyalist who helped lead the effort to raise funds for Trump’s presidential campaign, was pushed out of Goldman Sachs after a sexual harassment accusation — an issue that would surely come up at a confirmation hearing.
Buchan, who donated to a Super PAC supportive of Jeb Bush and then Marco Rubio before finally coming around to Trump, was an owner of company, NewCastle Investment Corp, that in 2009 sued Trump.
He also has Cayman Island funds and faces other financial issues that could make his confirmation contentious.
The Trump administration has officially only nominated two ambassadors, plus Nikki Haley to the UN — David Friedman for Israel and Terry Branstad to China.
The president has also signaled that he intends to select businessman William Hagerty to be ambassador to Japan and Jets owner Woody Johnson to the UK.
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