Kari Lake being considered for Mexico ambassador: Reports

President-elect Donald Trump is reportedly considering Kari Lake for the position of U.S. ambassador to Mexico, according to the online media publication Semafor.

Lake, a staunch ally of Trump, has maintained a close relationship with the president-elect over the years, supporting his false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.

She lost the 2022 gubernatorial race in Arizona and the 2024 United States Senate elections, claiming without evidence that her loss in 2022 was due to election fraud.

Lake has no diplomatic experience and has been a major critic of the U.S.-Mexico border crisis.

Newsweek has contacted the Trump-Vance transition team for comment outside of normal office hours.

Lake, a former news anchor and advocate for strict border security, received Trump’s endorsement for both her unsuccessful campaigns for statewide office in Arizona.

Last month, she lost her bid for an Arizona Senate seat to Democratic Senator-elect Ruben Gallego. Gallego defeated Lake by 2.4 percentage points in a closer race than polls had projected.

Lake made immigration policy a core component of her Senate campaign. On the campaign trail, Lake echoed Trump’s views on tougher border security measures.

She has previously referred to the surge of migrants entering the U.S. as an “invasion.”

She advocated for completing the southern border wall, increasing the number of judges to handle asylum claims, accelerating deportations of undocumented immigrants who cross outside official entry points, and constructing more border detention facilities.

If nominated by Trump to be the ambassador to Mexico, Lake would need approval from the Senate, meaning she could only afford to lose three Republican votes, assuming no Democrats support her confirmation.

Prior to November’s Senate race, Lake told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham: “In January of ’25, when President Trump is elected, and I’m elected in the Senate, we’re going to use that CBP One app the other way. We’re going to find out who came in and we’re going to send them back to their homeland.”

“In order to save our homeland, they got to go back to theirs.”

If appointed the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Lake would be responsible for engaging with the government of President Claudia Sheinbaum, who assumed office in October, on key issues such as migration, counternarcotics, and Trump’s pledge to impose tariffs on imports.

The ambassador will help oversee relations between the two neighboring countries, working closely with Sheinbaum’s administration.

Trump secured a second term, in part, by pledging mass deportations as part of a major crackdown on the southern border. He also threatened to impose 25 percent tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada unless those countries took stronger action to curb illegal drugs, like fentanyl, and illegal immigration.

Trump and Sheinbaum spoke after his November victory, but their discussions ended with differing accounts.

Trump said that Sheinbaum “agreed to stop migration through Mexico and into the United States, effectively closing our southern border.” Sheinbaum told reporters at a press conference in Mexico City that “it has never been our plan to close the border with the U.S.”