GOP fundraiser Kelly Knight Craft to be ambassador to Canada: report

Kelly Knight Craft, a prominent Republican fundraiser and activist, has accepted an offer from President Trump to serve as the U.S. ambassador to Canada, Bloomberg’s White House correspondent reported Wednesday.

SCOOP: GOP fundraiser Kelly Knight Craft has accepted Trump’s offer to be U.S. ambassador to Canada, sources tell me.

— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) March 1, 2017

The Globe and Mail reported last Friday that Craft, who served as a member of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations under President George W. Bush, was under consideration. 

{mosads}The Toronto-based newspaper said Craft met with Canadian-American Business Council senior adviser Maryscott Greenwood in Washington that day. 

Craft is married to billionaire Joe Craft, the CEO of Alliance Resource Partners and a major GOP donor who has given millions of dollars to Republican super PACs and congressional candidates.

Craft was appointed to the University of Kentucky Board of Trustees last August. Her term on the board is set to expire in 2022.

Canada is one of the United States’s strongest allies, as well as the nation’s second-largest trade partner.

Trump met with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for the first time earlier this month.

The two men are largely on opposite ends of the political spectrum; Trump is a populist conservative and Trudeau is a member of his country’s Liberal Party. During a joint news conference, however, Trump and Trudeau reaffirmed the strength of U.S.-Canada alliance.

“Relationships between neighbors are pretty complex, and we won’t always agree on everything,” Trudeau said. “But because of our deep, abiding respect for one another, we’re able to successfully navigate those complexities and still remain the closest of allies and friends.”