Trump to nominate Heather Nauert as UN ambassador

Nauert, who joined the State Department in April 2017, would replace Nikki Haley, who announced her plans to leave the post earlier this year.

"Heather Nauert will be nominated," Trump told reporters Friday ahead of a trip to Missouri. “She’s very talented, very smart, very quick, and I think she’s going to be respected by all.”

CNN reported Nauert, 48, will likely face a tough Senate confirmation process focused particularly on her qualifications.

Before taking on her role with the State Department, Nauert had little government or foreign policy experience. She spent more than 20 years as an anchor and correspondent for Fox News, where she led breaking news coverage for the network's "Fox & Friends" morning show, according to CNN. She worked as a general assignment reporter at ABC News for a short time before that, the news network reported.

Haley also lacked foreign policy experience before she took on the role of U.N. ambassador in January 2017, Bloomberg News reported.

"People were slightly denigrating about Haley too, because of her relative lack of experience and the general view is that she did quite well," Richard Gowan, a senior fellow at the United Nations University's Center for Policy Research, told CNN. "No one wants to prejudge how Nauert will perform. ... She'll be working with a pretty professional team and if Nauert is willing to trust the diplomats, they will have her back."

Haley announced in October that she would step down at the end of this year.

The president also said Friday that he plans to nominate former U.S. Attorney General William Barr to replace Jeff Sessions.

He added that he plans to announce another big staff change Saturday afternoon, during the Army-Navy football game.