Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, said he believes President-elect Donald Trump made a “brilliant” choice in tapping U.S. Congresswoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY-21) and former director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Tom Homan to be a part of his administration.
On Monday, Trump announced that he is nominating Stefanik to serve in his cabinet as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.
“Elise is a strong and very smart America First fighter…She will be an incredible Ambassador to the United Nations, delivering Peace through Strength and America First National Security policies!” he said.
One day earlier, Trump announced that Homan would join his administration to be in charge of the nation’s borders as a “border czar” and oversee all deportations of illegal aliens back to their countries of origin:
“I’ve known Tom for a long time, and there is nobody better at policing and controlling our Borders…I have no doubt he will do a fantastic, and long awaited for, job,” the former president said.
Pappert cheered both of Trump’s appointments to his incoming administration, first pointing out how notable Stefanik’s appointment is.
“I think that [Stefanik] will do extremely well representing the United States as the ambassador to the UN, and I think that she will represent our allies very well in addition…She was the youngest woman ever elected to Congress at the age of 30 just 10 years ago, and I think she is going to be possibly one of the youngest people ever to hold this ambassadorship. So it’s a brilliant move, and I think that President Trump had a little bit of pushback at the onset of this move, but I think that we’re all going to look back on this and say that is a perfect slot for Elise Stefanik,” Pappert said on Monday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
Pappert further pointed to Stefanik’s pushback on the presidents of Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania as pro-Palestine, pro-Hamas crowds took over campuses and harassed Jewish students as to why Trump tapped her to serve in his cabinet.
“This is the woman who, I guess a little less or a little more than a year ago, confronted the Ivy League presidents over their antisemitism on campus, and it resulted in the resignations of Claudine Gay of Harvard and Liz McGill of the University of Pennsylvania,” Pappert explained.
“That is remarkable, and I think that reverberated, not just here in the United States, where we’ve seen colleges confront their antisemitism problems, but I think that reverberated around the world, and it sends a message that this woman is here to fight,” Pappert added.
Regarding concerns about Stefanik’s seat in the U.S. House being flipped in a special election, Pappert dismissed such a theory, noting how the Democratic Party is currently “broken” and “in disarray” in the aftermath of the November 5 general election.
“I think that while the Democrats are certainly going to funnel every available dollar into this race, I just think the party is in such a broken state that this may be a good time for at least Stefanik to take the new job and get a good replacement,” Pappert said.
Discussing Homan’s appointment to the incoming Trump administration, Pappert said he believes the former ICE director was not given an official title yet so that the president-elect would have more time to determine exactly what role he wants Homan to play.
“I think that the border czar may be a catch-all term that Trump is using while he determines exactly what role [he wants Homan to play.] I think a big part of this is going to depend on who our Senate Majority Leader winds up being,” Pappert explained.
“[A Senate Majority candidate] has said they will allow President Trump recess appointments, which would allow the president-elect to essentially name these people without having to worry about getting a critical mass of Democrats on board with confirming them. If that happens, I would not be surprised to see Tom Homan get a very prestigious position leading the Department of Homeland Security. If not, I believe he will be the architect of what these agencies do from a position from which he does not need to be confirmed,” Pappert added.
Noting how he met the former ICE director at an event in 2019, Pappert said he believes Homan will be the “Genghis Khan of the southern border.”
“With Kamala Harris and Joe Biden, we had Nero fiddling while Rome burned. Now, we’re going to have the Genghis Khan of the border go down there. This is an unprecedented development. I could not be happier,” Pappert said.
Watch the full interview:
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
