Trump Picks Big-Bucks Donor Lewis Eisenberg As Italy Ambassador

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By Daniel J. Solomon July 11, 2017

As the State Department struggles to fill a record number of positions, President Trump has selected Lewis Eisenberg, a Republican fundraiser and ex-Goldman Sachs exec, as United States ambassador to Italy.

Eisenberg, who lives in Vero Beach, near the president’s Mar-a-Lago mansion in Palm Beach, has previously worked as a partner at Goldman Sachs. He later went on to start own investment company Granite Capital International Group and serve on the boards of different public authorities in New York. He was finance chair of the RNC during Trump’s presidential run.

Diplomatic postings in western Europe usually are reserved for wealthy donors or friends of the president, while more sensitive positions in the Middle East or Africa are given to State Department veterans. The Trump White House has been slower than any administration in recent memory in filling out the State Department team, spurring some top Republicans to criticize the president.

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at solomon@forward.com or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

Daniel J. Solomon is the former Assistant to the Editor/News Writer at the Forward. Originally from Queens, he attended Harvard as an undergraduate, where he wrote his senior thesis on French-Jewish intellectual history. He is excited to have returned to New York after his time in Massachusetts. Daniel’s passions include folk music, cycling, and pointed argument.

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