President Donald Trump has added another familiar face to his administration: former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. The religious right movement has hailed the former Arkansas governor as a hero for his faith-based approach to political issues for decades.
So what role will Huckabee play in the administration? By a bipartisan vote in the U.S. Senate held on Thursday, the former presidential candidate was confirmed as the United States ambassador to Israel.
His mission in this role is to help bring the current war raging between the Jewish state and radical Islamic terrorist group Hamas to an end. Let’s hope he’s successful, because this particular region of the world continues to grow unstable which could pose big problems for the whole world down the road.
“U.S. Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), an outspoken pro-Israel lawmaker, was the lone Democrat to support Huckabee, 69, in a vote of 53-46. Parts of Huckabee’s confirmation hearing were filled with concerns raised by Democrats about past ‘extreme’ statements he made in support of Israel, including its right to annex the West Bank and his flat rejection of a two-state solution with Palestinians,” Trending Politics News reported.
President Donald Trump has previously called for converting the Gaza strip into a “riviera for the Middle East,” bringing the land under U.S. control and only “forcibly” displacing more than 2 million Palestinians if “it is for their safety.”
“If confirmed, it will be my responsibility to carry out the president’s priorities, not mine,” Huckabee said in response to Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) when he was asked about his previous statements during a committee hearing.
However, congressional Democrats weren’t buying it.
“Huckabee’s positions are not the words of a thoughtful diplomat – they are the words of a provocateur whose views are far outside international consensus and contrary to the core bipartisan principles of American diplomacy,” Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) a senior Jewish Democrat, went on to say in a statement to Fox News a month ago. “In one of the most volatile and violent areas in the world today, there is no need for more extremism, and certainly not from the historic ambassador’s post and behind the powerful seal of the United States.”
Unsurprisingly, Nadler’s opinion carries essentially no weight with the president.
“He’s going to be fantastic. He’s going to bring home the bacon, even though bacon isn’t too big in Israel. I had to clear that up. Congratulations to Mike Huckabee,” Trump wisecracked from the Oval Office after the vote.
President Trump on the confirmation of Mike Huckabee as Ambassador to Israel:
"He’s going to be fantastic. He’s going to bring home the bacon, even though bacon isn’t too big in Israel. I had to clear that up. Congratulations to Mike Huckabee." 😂 pic.twitter.com/1vS3b0QIDA
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) April 9, 2025
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been one of the few world leaders to have Trump’s ear on a regular basis. Just this week, he visited the White House to tout his country’s termination of tariffs on most U.S. goods, and in return, President Trump reiterated his commitment to supporting Israel as it seeks to recover all alive and deceased hostages in the hands of Hamas.
“Congratulations to my dear friend Mike Huckabee upon being confirmed as the next ambassador of the United States to Israel,” Netanyahu said in a post published on Facebook after the vote. “This is a great day for the Israeli-American alliance. I look forward to working with you to make the unbreakable bond between our two nations even stronger.”
“Huckabee, an ordained Southern Baptist pastor, served as Arkansas governor from 1997 to 2007. He ran for president in 2008 and 2016 and, in between, hosted the talk show ‘Huckabee’ on Fox News,” the report said.
The Arkansas native was a huge hit with evangelical voters in Iowa during his first campaign, easily sealing a victory in the 2008 caucus. However, things went south as he began to run out of money, which ultimately led to his withdrawing from the race.
He was not quite as fortunate during his 2016 campaign and quickly suspended it after the first-in-the-nation election.
“His name has remained synonymous with the Trump administration following his daughter’s service in the president’s first administration. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who served as White House press secretary from 2017 to 2019, now fills her father’s old shoes as the governor of their home state,” TPN concluded.
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