--- title: Donald Trump to Nominate Jon Huntsman As Russian Ambassador description: Trump intends to nominate former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman as Ambassador to Russia, the White House announced Tuesday evening canonical: https://time.com/4863848/donald-trump-jon-huntsman-russia-ambassador/ author: Alana Abramson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-07-19T00:10:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T16:36:44.362Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump Will Nominate Jon Huntsman as Russia Ambassador og:description: Huntsman previously served as Obama's Ambassador to China og:url: https://time.com/4863848/donald-trump-jon-huntsman-russia-ambassador/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4703e7bdb2a6e9a0/6988d6340a4a22fe0d9cf17c/utah-governor-jon-huntsman.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4396 og:image:height: 2473 og:image:alt: Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump Will Nominate Jon Huntsman as Russia Ambassador twitter:description: Huntsman previously served as Obama's Ambassador to China twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4703e7bdb2a6e9a0/6988d6340a4a22fe0d9cf17c/utah-governor-jon-huntsman.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Will Nominate Jon Huntsman as Russia Ambassador > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Jul 19, 2017 12:10 AM UTC  Former Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., R-Utah, co-chair of No Labels, appears before a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing in Dirksen Building titled "Governing Through Goal Setting: Enhancing the Economic and National Security of America," June 17, 2015. Former Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., R-Utah, co-chair of No Labels, appears before a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing in Dirksen Building titled "Governing Through Goal Setting: Enhancing the Economic and National Security of America," June 17, 2015. Tom Williams—AP  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Jul 19, 2017 12:10 AM UTC [President Donald Trump](http://time.com/4863295/ike-kaveladze-donald-trump-jr-meeting/) intends to nominate former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman as Ambassador to Russia, [the White House ](http://time.com/4859838/white-house-pitches-health-bill-to-skeptical-u-s-governors/)announced Tuesday evening. The appointment comes at a time when the President’s relationship with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, is under public scrutiny following assessments from several intelligence agencies that Russia intentionally tried to intervene in the Presidential election to ensure a Trump victory. The announcement came as reports emerged that Trump had a previously undisclosed meeting at the G20 summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The White House characterized the interaction as a “brief conversation” after a dinner, and said any insinuation they tried to cover up the meeting was “false and malicious.” Huntsman, who is currently Chairman of the foreign policy think tank the Atlantic Council, served as Barack Obama’s Ambassador to China from 2009 to 2011, immediately after finishing his term as Governor of Utah. He also served as Ambassador to Singapore in the early nineties, and ran unsuccessfully in the 2012 Presidential race. Huntsman was not part of Trump’s inner circle during the campaign. Although he endorsed him in May, he said he should drop out of the race following the release of the 2005 _Access Hollywood_ tape, where Trump bragged about groping women. Huntsman [told the](http://www.sltrib.com/news/4444721-155/after-video-huntsman-says-it-is) Salt Lake _Tribune, “_the time has come for Governor Pence to lead the ticket.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4863848/donald-trump-jon-huntsman-russia-ambassador/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4863848/donald-trump-jon-huntsman-russia-ambassador/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Will Nominate Jon Huntsman as Russia Ambassador","datePublished":"2017-07-19T00:10:12.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T16:36:44.362Z","description":"Huntsman served as Obama's Ambassador to China","url":"https://time.com/4863848/donald-trump-jon-huntsman-russia-ambassador/","keywords":["White House","russia","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4703e7bdb2a6e9a0/6988d6340a4a22fe0d9cf17c/utah-governor-jon-huntsman.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alana Abramson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4703e7bdb2a6e9a0/6988d6340a4a22fe0d9cf17c/utah-governor-jon-huntsman.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee","caption":"Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee","creditText":"Tom Williams—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4863848/donald-trump-jon-huntsman-russia-ambassador/","name":"Donald Trump Will Nominate Jon Huntsman as Russia Ambassador"}}]}] ```