Trump nominates Trinidad-born Jennifer Johnson-Carroll as US ambassador

US Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump has nom­i­nat­ed Trinidad-born for­mer Flori­da lieu­tenant gov­er­nor Jen­nifer John­son-Car­roll to serve as the next Unit­ed States am­bas­sador to Trinidad and To­ba­go.

The nom­i­na­tion was for­mal­ly sub­mit­ted to the US Sen­ate on June 2 and must be con­firmed be­fore John­son-Car­roll can take up the diplo­mat­ic post.

In a state­ment, the Amer­i­can Cham­ber of Com­merce of Trinidad and To­ba­go wel­comed the nom­i­na­tion, say­ing it re­flect­ed the con­tin­ued im­por­tance of the long­stand­ing re­la­tion­ship be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go and the Unit­ed States.

The Re­pub­li­can Par­ty’s of­fi­cial ac­count al­so con­grat­u­lat­ed John­son-Car­roll on her nom­i­na­tion, wish­ing her suc­cess in the role rep­re­sent­ing the Unit­ed States.

John­son-Car­roll, who was born in Arou­ca, made his­to­ry in 2010 when she be­came Flori­da’s first fe­male lieu­tenant gov­er­nor and the first Black per­son elect­ed to statewide of­fice in the state. A US Navy vet­er­an, she served for 20 years, ris­ing from jet me­chan­ic to lieu­tenant com­man­der be­fore en­ter­ing pol­i­tics.

She lat­er served in the Flori­da House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives and was in­volved in eco­nom­ic de­vel­op­ment ini­tia­tives, trade mis­sions and ef­forts to ex­pand busi­ness links be­tween Flori­da and in­ter­na­tion­al part­ners.

John­son-Car­roll has main­tained ties to Trinidad and To­ba­go through­out her ca­reer and has pre­vi­ous­ly led trade mis­sions aimed at strength­en­ing com­mer­cial re­la­tions be­tween Flori­da and the twin-is­land re­pub­lic.

Her nom­i­na­tion comes as the Unit­ed States and Trinidad and To­ba­go con­tin­ue co­op­er­a­tion on en­er­gy, se­cu­ri­ty, trade and re­gion­al is­sues.