WASHINGTON DC – Far too much is often made about the “special relationship” between the United States and the UK, and many observers believe the phrase itself is over-worked.
But on Saturday afternoon, president-elect Donald Trump made a surprise announcement that immediately reinvigorated the notion that there may be something “special” about the ties between Washington and London.
Trump revealed the appointment of a “Special Envoy to the United Kingdom” in the form of Mark Burnett, the British-born creator of The Apprentice, the NBC reality show that debuted in 2004 and would eventually lay the groundwork to catapult Trump into the White House.
“You’re fired!”, was Trump’s catchphrase on the broadcast. But on Saturday, he told Burnett “you’re hired!”, announcing that the mogul will bring “a unique blend of diplomatic acumen and international recognition to this important role”.
Trump’s statement noted Burnett’s success in winning 13 Emmy awards, and said that he would “work to enhance diplomatic relations, focusing on areas of mutual interest, including trade, investment opportunities and cultural exchanges”.
It is unclear why Trump believes a Special Envoy needs to be posted to London. He has not announced similar appointments to any other European capital, and in the past, American leaders have usually reserved the role for deployment during times of crisis, or where a knotty problem requires a specific attention.
In Trump’s first term, he reserved the role for strife-torn countries including Syria, Iran, North Korea and Afghanistan. Then, his State Department spokeswoman claimed the envoy role was useful when needing a “singular focus” on thorny foreign policy challenges.
Historically, special envoys have only rarely been posted to Europe. In 1995, President Bill Clinton named Senator George Mitchell to be his Special Envoy to Northern Ireland, and Mitchell spent the next 6 years helping to broker peace in the province.
In 1997, Clinton named former Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke to be his Special Envoy to Cyprus, in an ultimately unsuccessful bid to forge a political settlement between Greece and Turkey over the divided Mediterranean island.
Burnett’s appointment comes with no specific standoff to resolve, and it is unclear how he might work alongside Warren Stephens, the billionaire investment banker named earlier this month as Trump’s choice to become the next US Ambassador to Britain.
Mark Burnett speaks at the Milken Institute 21st Global Conference in California in 2018 (Photo: Mike Blake/Reuters)Like Stephens, Burnett has zero experience in the realm of diplomacy. There is no clarity on how the two men will work together, given that it would generally fall to the Ambassador to carry out the very roles that Trump is now assigning to his former network television colleague.
Stephens will certainly require Senate confirmation to become Ambassador. Burnett might also need to secure Senate backing for his post, thanks to a change in the law in January 2023. Since then, the role of Special Envoy has required Senate approval, although existing envoys named prior to that date were not required to undergo the process.
When former senator John Kerry stood down as President Joe Biden’s Special Envoy for Climate earlier this year, Biden’s choice to succeed him – former White House Chief of Staff John Podesta – was instead named “Senior Adviser to the President for International Climate Policy” in a bid to skirt the need for confirmation hearings to occur.
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Placing Burnett before a Senate panel might be fraught with risk for the President-elect. In 2016, Burnett broke with Trump, saying “I reject the hatred, division and misogyny that has been a very unfortunate part of his campaign”.
But he also declined to release video footage from The Apprentice archives that former members of the programme’s crew suggested would reveal Trump acting in a vulgar and offensive manner. Democrats in the Senate may well want to probe that decision in an effort to glean more information about what was caught on camera.
For Burnett, born and raised in Dagenham, the Special Envoy role will at least afford an opportunity to reacquaint himself with his former homeland. After a stint in the British Army that included deployments in Northern Ireland and the Falkland Islands, he left the UK in October 1982, applying for a job as a live-in nanny for a wealthy family in Los Angeles.
Despite lacking any experience in childcare, he secured the position, and eventually parlayed his early days in California into a flourishing TV career.
Trump will be hoping Burnett enjoys similar success building trade relationships between the US and Britain, at the very moment Lord Peter Mandelson becomes the UK’s new Ambassador to the United States with a very similar portfolio.
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