Donald Trump picks Arkansas banker Warren Stephens as ambassador to the UK

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Donald Trump will nominate billionaire investment banker Warren Stephens to be his ambassador to the UK, elevating a campaign donor from Arkansas to one of the most sought-after positions in the US diplomatic service.

Stephens, the chair and chief executive of Stephens Inc, an investment bank headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas, will need to be confirmed by the US Senate next year.

Stephens gave $3mn to the Make America Great Again political action committee that backed Trump in the election. The highly coveted UK ambassadorship is a often used as a prize for wealthy donors to presidential campaigns.

“Warren has always dreamed of serving the United States full time. I am thrilled that he will now have that opportunity as the top Diplomat, representing the U.S.A. to one of America’s most cherished and beloved Allies,” president-elect Trump said in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.

Stephens said it was an honour to be nominated for the role, and would work to “implement the president’s agenda and further strengthen the long-standing alliance between the United States and the United Kingdom”.

Stephens was also a big donor to congressional Republicans and, like many in Trump’s orbit, had originally campaigned against him before later becoming a contributor. He backed groups supporting the presidential bids of Chris Christie, a fierce Trump critic, and Trump’s former vice-president Mike Pence, according to Open Secrets, a Washington non-profit.

Stephens Inc is considered one of the more significant banking groups outside the US’s major financial centres. The family-run investment bank is perhaps best known in banking circles for helping Walmart, which is based in Bentonville, Arkansas, go public in the 1970s.

Prior to Trump’s announcement, Stephens Inc was most known in Washington for its association with Bill and Hillary Clinton, both of whom had ties to the financial services group dating from Bill Clinton’s rise through Arkansas state politics.

According to the Center for Public Integrity, a Washington-based watchdog group, Warren Stephens and his wife Harriet were invited by then president Clinton to spend the night in the White House’s Lincoln Bedroom in 1993 — even though Stephens had a record of supporting Republican candidates.

“It was really special — a thrill,” Stephens told the group in the mid-1990s. “I don’t know exactly what gets you an invitation. I don’t know why I got invited, but it was a damn nice honour.”

Several Clinton associates had ties to Stephens, including the president’s first chief of staff, Mack McLarty, who had been chief executive of Arkla, an energy company owned by Stephens. Hillary Clinton was once a partner in Arkansas’s Rose Law Firm, which often represented Stephens’ company.

According to media reports from early in the Clinton presidency, the investment bank and its employees were central to raising early funds for Clinton’s cash-strapped 1992 presidential campaign while the candidate was still Arkansas governor.

The selection of Stephens for the UK post comes as the president-elect rounds out members of his foreign policy team. Woody Johnson, heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune who owns American football’s New York Jets and served as Trump’s first ambassador to the UK, was also seen as a candidate to regain the role.

Republican John Boozman, one of Arkansas’s US senators, hailed Stephens as “an incredible businessman, philanthropist and civic leader” and said his selection was “a very proud day” for the state.

Additional reporting by James Fontanella-Khan in New York and Alex Rogers in Washington