Donald Trump has named David Brat, the former Virginia congressman, as the next US ambassador to Australia, filling a post in Canberra that has been vacant for 15 months. The White House sent Brat’s nomination for Senate confirmation on Tuesday morning, Australian time.
Brat, 61, served two terms in Congress before losing his seat in 2018 to Democrat Abigail Spanberger. He is now vice-president of business relations at Virginia’s Liberty University and has a background that mixes politics, economics and religion: he was born and raised in rural Michigan, earned a PhD in economics from American University and a Masters of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary.
The nomination also returns Brat to a public role after years outside Capitol Hill, where he became known nationally for his 2014 primary upset of Eric Cantor. That victory briefly made him one of the most talked-about Republicans in Washington. His background is unusual even by diplomatic standards, and his writings have reflected that. In a 2011 paper, Brat argued that capitalism and Christianity should merge, and in 2010 he co-authored a paper examining the moral foundations of Ayn Rand’s writing.
The Canberra post has been empty since Joe Biden’s ambassador, Caroline Kennedy, left in November 2024, leaving the embassy without a Senate-confirmed envoy through a period of friction in the alliance. The nomination comes as Trump has repeatedly criticised the Albanese government for what he says is a failure to assist with the US and Israeli-led war in Iran and efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
The move does not end the strain in the relationship, but it gives Washington a named envoy for one of its most important allies after a long gap. Brat’s confirmation would also coincide with Greg Moriarty taking over as Australia’s ambassador to Washington, following Kevin Rudd.
Brat has not been a conventional foreign-policy figure, but his selection signals Trump is sending a political loyalist into a job that has been left open far too long. The question now is not whether Canberra has its ambassador back. It does. The question is how Brat will represent an alliance under pressure when he arrives, and whether he can reset the tone after 15 months without a permanent US envoy.
