President-elect Donald Trump has a new game plan for Herschel Walker, his longtime friend, ally and former football star.

Three years after Trump handpicked Walker to run for the Senate in his home state of Georgia in a crucial, combative, expensive and high-profile Senate race, the president-elect is now selecting his friend to serve as the U.S. ambassador to the Caribbean nation of 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,” Trump said in a statement Tuesday night on social media, as he pointed to Walker’s resume, which includes serving as co-chair of the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition during Trump’s first term in the White House.

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Walker is a former professional and college football star running back who won a Heisman Trophy and helped propel the University of Georgia to a national championship.

His friendship with the former and future president goes back to his days playing for the Trump-owned New Jersey Generals USFL football team in the 1980s. Walker also was a major Trump supporter and surrogate in the 2020 presidential election.

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In August 2021, Walker launched a Republican Senate campaign in Georgia after months of support and encouragement from Trump to run for office.

Walker, a first-time politician, was dogged during his Senate run by controversial statements and damaging revelations about his personal life and business career.

Republican Senate nominee Herschel Walker of Georgia holds a campaign rally on Oct. 27, 2022 in Cumming, Georgia. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)

The race between Walker and Democratic incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock ended up being one of the most closely watched Senate battles in the 2022 midterms. The contest went into overtime, with Walker ending up narrowly losing to Warnock in a runoff election in December of that year.

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This year, Walker joined Trump on the campaign trail in Georgia days before Election Day, as the former president carried the key southeastern battleground state after narrowly losing it to President Biden four years ago.

Former NFL running back and former Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Herschel Walker addresses the crowd at a rally for former President Donald Trump, on Nov. 3, 2024 in Macon, Georgia. (John Moore/Getty Images)

Walker becomes the third Republican who lost a recent Senate race in Georgia to be nominated by Trump for a post in his second administration.

Former Sen. David Perdue, who lost his seat to Democrat Sen. Jon Ossoff in the 2020 cycle, was selected by Trump to serve as ambassador to China, and former Sen. Kelly Loeffler, who lost to Warnock in the 2020 cycle, was picked by Trump to run the Small Business Administration.

Trump’s naming of Walker as ambassador to the Bahamas is the second time this month the former football star made headlines.

This past weekend, Walker graduated from the University of Georgia, 42 years after he last attended the school.

Environmental advocates are cautiously optimistic after the Supreme Court left California’s nation-leading auto emissions standards in place — at least for the moment.

The Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge from Ohio and 16 other conservative states that aimed to strip California of its authority to adopt vehicle emissions standards stricter than federal benchmarks. However, days earlier, justices announced they will decide whether red-state fuel producers have legal standing to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for alleged financial losses caused by California’s stringent fuel economy standards and electric vehicle mandate.

State policymakers and environmental advocates view the Supreme Court’s decision to leave California’s regulatory powers intact as a triumph. But, as an adversarial presidential administration is poised to take office, experts say they anticipate a flurry of legal objections over nearly all forthcoming California clean air policies.

“The Supreme Court was right to turn away this radical request by Republican-led states to upend decades of law letting California cut pollution and clean our air,” said Daniel Villaseñor, a spokesperson for Gov. Gavin Newsom. “California’s authority was codified in the Clean Air Act by none other than Republican Richard Nixon, who recognized that California should continue serving as a lab for innovation to show the nation what’s possible with smart policy.”

The battle to alleviate air pollution and reduce planet-warming gases will be waged largely in the courts over the next four years, according to experts. And the legal strategy, they say, will need to focus on defending California’s aggressive clean air rules as much as it will be about ushering in new regulation.

“It’s good news, at least in the short term,” said Joe Lyou, president of California-based nonprofit the Coalition for Clean Air. “Everyone’s concerned about what’s going to happen in the long term. But this is a good start to what will undoubtedly be a long, long battle over clean air over the next four years. A lot of it is going to be up to the lawyers.”

Several industry groups have already filed litigation to contest California’s rules, including a ban on new sales of gasoline vehicles in 2035.

Last week, when the Supreme Court announced it would review a legal challenge over how California regulations affected fuel producers, it signaled its willingness to consider objections to California’s vehicle emission rules. However, the justices won’t be weighing the merits of the case, only whether the fuel companies have the right to sue.

The District of Columbia Court of Appeals had previously ruled the lawsuit invalid, in part, because fuel producers are challenging California emission standards adopted in 2012. Because car manufacturers already comply with the standard, there is no feasible remedy for their claims, experts say.

Another part of the fuel producers’ argument is that the Clean Air Act only grants California the ability to regulate conventional vehicle pollution for clean air — such as smog-forming nitrogen oxides — not planet-warming gases such as CO2 to address global warming.

“Their argument is this authority was given to California because they have really bad smog problems, not because of climate change,” said Ann Carlson, the founding director of the Emmett Institute on Climate Change & the Environment at UCLA. “And therefore, they shouldn’t be able to regulate greenhouse gases under this special power they have.”

But many environmental advocates say that argument may be moot. California air regulators have long maintained that air quality issues in major California cities — including smoggy Los Angeles — are so severe that electric vehicles are necessary to meet pollution standards. Air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions go hand in hand, they say.

“You have a technology, in these zero emission vehicles, that can reduce the full spectrum of pollution,” said Alice Henderson, lead counsel for transportation and clean air policy at the Environmental Defense Fund, an organization that has helped defend California rules. “And it is sort of laughable to think that these air agencies should be forced to ignore that technology.”

But the fight to enshrine clean air rules is not just legal sparring. For Lyou, it’s about the health consequences of inhaling air pollution. According to the California Air Resources Board, air pollution contributes to roughly 5,000 premature deaths each year in Southern California.

“It really comes down to whether people are going to have asthma attacks, whether people die prematurely or whether people have heart attacks,” Lyou said. “These are lives at stake.”

President-elect Trump dropped his most recent round of ambassador nominations on social media Tuesday night, before issuing a warning to Senate Republicans about any potential deals with Democratic lawmakers.

The Republican leader began by nominating Herschel Walker as his choice for U.S. ambassador to the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. Walker, a staunch Trump ally, ran for the U.S. Senate in 2022 as a candidate from Georgia.

“I am pleased to nominate Herschel Walker as United States Ambassador to the Commonwealth of the Bahamas,” Trump’s post began. “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.”

Trump went on to call Walker, a former National Football League (NFL) player, a “successful businessman, philanthropist, former Heisman Trophy winner, and NFL Great.” The president-elect also commended Walker’s previous work in the first Trump administration.

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“During my First Term, he served as Co-Chair of the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition. Herschel has traveled to over 400 Military installations around the World, removing the stigma surrounding mental health,” Trump added. “He represented the United States at the 1992 Winter Olympics as a member of the U.S. bobsled team.”
 
“Congratulations Herschel! You will make Georgia, and our entire Nation, proud, because we know you will always put AMERICA FIRST!”

Trump followed up his post about Walker to announce Nicole McGraw as his pick for U.S. ambassador to Croatia. The president-elect described McGraw as a “philanthropist, businesswoman, and World renowned art collector.”

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Former NFL running back and former Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Herschel Walker addresses the crowd at a rally for Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump at the Atrium Health Ampitheater on November 03, 2024 in Macon, Georgia. (John Moore/Getty Images)

“Nicole has brought fine art to the People through her work leading CANVAS Art Charities, and raised Millions of Dollars for neglected and abused children as a Board Member of Place of Hope,” Trump wrote. “She is a graduate of Southern Methodist University with a BFA in Art History and Studio Art. Congratulations Nicole!”

After issuing the nominations, Trump ended with a note warning Senate Republicans not to make deals with Democrats to “fast track” nominations this month.

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Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump arrives at a campaign rally at Santander Arena, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024, in Reading, Pa. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

“To all Senate Republicans: NO DEAL WITH DEMOCRATS TO FAST TRACK NOMINATIONS AT THE END OF THIS CONGRESS,” Trump wrote. “I won the biggest mandate in 129 years. I will make my appointments of Very Qualified People in January when I am sworn in.”