Trump to name Jon Huntsman as next U.S. ambassador to Russia, officials say

Former Utah governor and 2012 Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman is President Trump's choice to be the next U.S. ambassador to Russia, White House officials said on Wednesday.

Huntsman, who served as the ambassador to China during the Obama administration, had been considering a Senate run in 2018, The Associated Press reported. He would likely enter the ambassador post during an unusual time in American-Russian relations with alleged interference in the U.S. election by Russia.

White House officials spoke on the condition of anonymity ahead of a formal announcement. Politico was the first to report the news on Huntsman.

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The former governor, a Mormon, had an up-and-down relationship with Trump during last year’s campaign. Back in October, he called on Trump to drop out of the presidential race following a salacious audio recording where Trump graphically discussed groping women. Huntsman even suggested that Mike Pence, who was the governor of Indiana at the time, to top the Republican ticket.

"In a campaign cycle that has been nothing but a race to the bottom — at such a critical moment for our nation — and with so many who have tried to be respectful of a record primary vote, the time has come for Governor Pence to lead the ticket," Huntsman told The Salt Lake Tribune.

But Trump has also criticized Huntsman in the past. In 2011 and 2012, the New York businessman called Huntsman “lightweight,” “weak” and "easy pickens” in a series of tweets blasting  him overing his tenure as ambassador to Beijing.

Yet it appears that both men buried their differences during the transition, a White House official told AP.

"We will welcome any head of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow who will be a staunch supporter of the idea to establish dialogue between the two countries. We believe that this is the main task of any ambassador in any country," said Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, when asked to comment on the reports that Huntsman is Trump's pick.

"As for who will be the ambassador, this is again the internal affair of our colleagues in Washington and we are not going to get into these internal affairs," Peskov said, according to Russian news outlet Sputnik.

 Contributing: Jane Onyanga-Omara, the Associated Press