Trump Taps Former Senate Candidate Herschel Walker for Ambassador to the

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Trump said Walker has ’spent decades serving as an ambassador to our nation’s youth.’

President-elect Donald Trump said on Dec. 17 that he has nominated former NFL player and Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker to serve as the U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas.

In a statement on Truth Social, the incoming president said he believes Walker, 62, is the ideal candidate for the role because he has “spent decades serving as an ambassador to our nation’s youth, our men and women in the military, and athletes at home and abroad.”

Trump described the former footballer as a “successful businessman, philanthropist, former Heisman Trophy winner, and NFL Great,” who had been a “tireless advocate for youth sports.”

During Trump’s first term in office, Walker served as co-chair of the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition (PCSFN) he said.

Walker has spoken publicly about being diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), previously known as multiple personality disorder. He has traveled to over 400 military installations around the globe as part of efforts to remove the stigma surrounding mental health, according to Trump.

Walker first rose to fame when he helped the Georgia Bulldogs win the 1980 national championship.

According to the official website for his former Senate campaign, Walker earned consensus All-American honors for three consecutive years in both football and track & field, set 10 NCAA and 15 SEC records, and won the Heisman Trophy in 1982.

Walker’s professional football career spanned 15 years, during which he played in the USFL and NFL, for the New Jersey Generals, Dallas Cowboys, Minnesota Vikings, Philadelphia Eagles, and New York Giants.

Walker also represented the United States at the 1992 Winter Olympics as a member of the U.S. bobsled team.

“Congratulations Herschel! You will make Georgia, and our entire Nation, proud, because we know you will always put AMERICA FIRST!” Trump wrote in Tuesday’s post.

Walker received Trump’s endorsement when he attempted to unseat the Democratic Party’s U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock in Georgia in 2022. The race was left undecided when neither candidate received 50 percent of the popular vote required for election in Georgia.

Warnock, a minister, then defeated Walker in a runoff.

The United States established diplomatic relations with the Bahamas in 1973 following its independence from the United Kingdom.

Walker would need to be confirmed by the Republican-led Senate to assume the role of U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas.

The Senate has not confirmed a U.S. ambassador to the island nation in over a decade. The role has been filled by a series of chargés d’affaires or heads of mission, the most recent being Kimberly Furnish, who assumed the position in 2024.

Furnish, a foreign service officer, previously served as the Department of State’s director of American Citizen Services and Crisis Management and as the international narcotics and law enforcement attaché at the United States Consulate General in Karachi, Pakistan, according to her official biography.

Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report.