On Wednesday, President Donald Trump announced the appointment of a new US ambassador to the UAE.
The day before, the appointment of a new US ambassador to the UAE was announced. The post was taken by John Racolta of Michigan, a business executive and public figure, who since 1993 served as executive director of the construction company Walbridge Aldinger in Detroit.
Walbridge is 102 years old. The company is engaged in the construction of factories, hospitals and government facilities. Last year, the company's revenue was $ 1.5 billion. The company is one of the largest family-owned companies in Detroit.
Mr. Racolta also serves as co-chair of the Detroit School City Future School Association.
Unlike his predecessor, Barbara Leaf, a wide-tracked diplomat who served in the Balkans and participated in rebuilding Iraq, for Mr. Racolt, diplomacy is a new activity — until his appointment, the only diplomatic post he held was the position of Honorary Consul of Romania in the state Michigan.
Racolta is a trustee for the New Detroit outreach group and a board member of Southeast Michigan's Road Together Charitable Foundation.
The age of Racolta is 70 years. He participated in raising funds for the Trump presidential campaign, his personal contribution and his family's contribution to the Trump election fund amounted to more than 260 thousand US dollars.
Racolta served as financial adviser to former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney during his presidential campaigns in 2008 and 2012.
In July, Racolta told Detroit news that he was visiting Chicago, where he met with Trump in one of the presidential hotels, after which he agreed to raise funds for his campaign. Racolta was invited to a party in honor of Trump's election in New York after it became clear that the big estate wreck was the first Republican to win an election in Michigan since 1988.
Experts believe that Racolta played a key role in lobbying for the Republican-controlled legislature, thanks to which Detroit public schools wrote off $ 617 million in debt accumulated over seven years due to ineffective management.
Recently, Racolta advocated the need to reform the financing of special education to make it commensurate with the allocation of funds to traditional school districts.
Racolta is the third Detroit businessman appointed by Donald Trump as ambassador.
In November, Trump nominated David Fisher, Chairman and CEO of Suburban Collection, as US Ambassador to Morocco.
Last month, the president appointed real estate consultant Joseph Sella, a native of Ann Arbor, Michigan, as ambassador to Fiji.
In an interview in November 2016, talking about Donald Trump, Racolta said: "So far, I have not made a decision. I have not seen in anyone the support that the next president of the United States of America should be."
