Jamaica is a beautiful island with white beaches; a green, mountainous interior; and, despite its small size, one of the most recognizable cultures in the world. Jamaica has exported music, fashion, and food to the farthest corners of the planet. Bob Marley alone wrote songs that hundreds of millions of people would instantly recognize as Jamaican.
Jamaica also has a stable parliamentary democracy and excellent relations with its neighbors. The United States is the country’s largest trading partner. Some 3 million Americans visit the island every year, and hundreds of thousands of Jamaicans come to the United States. Jamaica and the United States, according to the State Department website, “maintain strong and productive relations, based on trust and mutual interest.”
Given all of that: What did Jamaica do to deserve Kari Lake?
Lake, a failed Senate and gubernatorial candidate from Arizona, has just been named as President Trump’s candidate for ambassador to Jamaica. If confirmed, she will arrive in Kingston with no diplomatic or political preparation, other than the 14 months she has just spent running America’s foreign broadcasting agencies into the ground. During a chaotic tenure as the leader of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, Lake tried to dismantle Voice of America, and to block funding for America’s other broadcasters, including Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia. By doing so, Lake ceded influence to Chinese and Russian state media all over the world and undermined America’s ability to reach people during times of crisis, most notably in Venezuela and Iran.
[Read: What is Kari Lake trying to achieve?]
Lake also squandered tens of millions of dollars, perhaps hundreds of millions, of taxpayer money. Because she couldn’t be bothered to understand U.S. employment law, she tried and failed to fire hundreds of VOA staff. Many of them remained on administrative leave for months, receiving salaries while being barred from working. She abruptly canceled a contract for Washington, D.C., office space without following the correct procedures, potentially leaving the US government liable to be sued for more than $200 million.
She had very little contact with agency employees or journalists, sequestering herself away in the State Department, although it’s unclear how much time she spent there either. Instead, she devoted hours of her time to posting on X, repeating election conspiracy theories and partisan slogans. She also attempted to run for Congress, but could not get the president’s blessing. She finally lost several lawsuits, including one that ended with a judge questioning whether she even had the legal right to run USAGM, and declaring all of her decisions null and void.
According to someone familiar with the process, Lake was not even Trump’s first choice to be ambassador to Jamaica. But perhaps the administration was so desperate to get Lake out of Washington that they gave the job to her anyway.
The United States does have a long tradition of politically-appointed ambassadors, some of whom have been no better prepared than Kari Lake. But rarely, if ever, is anyone given a diplomatic posting directly following such a spectacular failure, especially one that did so much damage to American interests around the world. Jamaica is a solid American ally, a strong democracy, a cultural superpower. Why inflict this dubious honor on it?
Yvonne Wingett Sanchez contributed reporting to this article.
The post What Did Jamaica Do to Deserve Kari Lake? appeared first on The Atlantic.
