Just a few days before Christmas, President Donald Trump is in a giving mood.
On Tuesday, Trump announced that a slate of aides and loyalists would be assigned to federal advisory boards and commissions as he looks to reward his allies in the final stages of his presidency.
The president named senior aide Hope Hicks to be a member of the board overseeing the Fulbright scholarship program. The 12-member panel oversees U.S. students and academics with other countries, and is considered to be the most prestigious international exchange program in the world.
Richard Grenell, who served as ambassador to Germany and acting director of national intelligence who later advised Trump’s reelection campaign from a post at the Republican National Committee, was nominated to serve on the United States Holocaust Memorial Council.
Trump also nominated 40 others to “key positions,” including former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi to serve on the board of trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as well as former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham to the National Board for Education Sciences.
The announcement came hours before Trump pardoned 15 people and commuted the sentences of five others.
