# Jon Huntsman Jr. **Jon Huntsman Jr.** (born March 26, 1960) is a former Republican governor of Utah and two-time ambassador who served as Trump's envoy to Moscow from 2017 to 2019 — the years of the Skripal poisoning and the INF Treaty withdrawal. ## Earlier career Huntsman was governor of Utah (2005–2009; [[Jason Chaffetz]] was his chief of staff), [[Barack Obama]]'s ambassador to China (2009–2011), and a 2012 presidential candidate who dropped out in January 2012 and endorsed [[Mitt Romney]]. ## Moscow Nominated March 8, 2017 and confirmed by voice vote on September 28, 2017, Huntsman took up the post on October 3, 2017. His tenure spanned the [[Skripal Poisoning]], U.S. withdrawal from the INF Treaty, and the Kerch Strait incident. He submitted his resignation in August 2019, effective October 3, 2019, citing family, writing that the United States "must continue to hold Russia accountable." ## After Huntsman lost the 2020 Utah Republican gubernatorial primary to Spencer Cox. Since April 2024 he has been Mastercard's Vice Chairman and President of Strategic Growth, and sits on the Ford and Chevron boards. ## RWKB angle Huntsman was a GOP-establishment figure who staffed the Moscow embassy for an administration openly friendly to the Kremlin — and his resignation letter's "hold Russia accountable" line reads as a quiet dissent. ## See Also - [[Mitt Romney]] - [[Russia]]