Trump taps former football star Herschel Walker as ambassador to the Bahamas

President-elect Donald Trump gave one of the cushiest ambassador slots in the U.S. diplomatic portfolio to one of his most loyal supporters.

Mr. Trump announced Tuesday evening that he would appoint former football great and failed Georgia U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker as ambassador to the Bahamas.

“Herschel has spent decades serving as an Ambassador to our Nation’s youth, our men and women in the Military, and athletes at home and abroad,” he said in a statement.

“Congratulations Herschel! You will make Georgia, and our entire Nation, proud, because we know you will always put AMERICA FIRST!” Mr. Trump wrote.

A combination of factors makes the ambassadorship to the nation just off the Florida Atlantic coast one of the most attractive diplomatic posts.

The Bahamas is a tropical island chain with which the U.S. has a friendly but relatively low-stakes relationship, especially when compared to the only three nations physically closer to the U.S. — Canada, Mexico and Cuba.

The flight from the capital, Nassau, to Miami is less than 200 miles.

Mr. Trump once was Mr. Walker’s boss, when he owned the USFL’s New Jersey Generals and the Heisman-winning running back from the University of Georgia was the team’s marquee player.

The then-former president later recruited Mr. Walker to run in 2022 for the U.S. Senate seat in Georgia and backed him in the primary, essentially granting him the nomination given his own popularity in GOP circles. However, Mr. Walker performed poorly in debates and in the general election, losing by 100,000 votes in a runoff to Democrat Raphael Warnock.