President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday tapped businessperson and major political donor Bill White to serve as U.S. ambassador to Belgium.
White is the founder and CEO of Constellations Group, a Manhattan-based consulting firm, and previously served as president of the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum in New York.
“Bill has worked tirelessly to support Great American Patriots who have given everything for our Country by raising over $1.5 Billion Dollars for our fallen heroes, catastrophically wounded, and severely burned Service Members,” Trump said Saturday in a post on Truth Social. “He is a twice recipient of the Meritorious Public Service Award for extraordinary service from the U.S. Coast Guard, and for outstanding support from the U.S. Navy.”
White abruptly stepped down from his post leading the Intrepid in 2010 amid a probe launched by New York’s then-Attorney General Andrew Cuomo into a state pension scandal. White allegedly acted as a middleman for investment companies hoping to win deals with the state fund, and “secretly” amassed fees from those deals — or as Cuomo put it, “used his access to fill his pockets.” White ultimately agreed to pay a $1 million settlement.
White was a major Trump donor and surrogate to his 2024 campaign, though the millionaire investor backed President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, both Democrats, in past races. During the 2012 presidential election, White, who is openly gay, publically withdrew his support for Mitt Romney for being “on the wrong side of history” for his stance on marriage equality.
