Exclusive
Trump Shocks Base, Selects Never-Trumper Warren Stephens As U.K. Ambassador
President-elect Donald Trump shocked his base yesterday when he nominated prominent Nikki Haley donor, and financier of Mitch McConnell Warren Stephens as his ambassador to the United Kingdom, long considered perhaps the most prestigious ambassadorship that exists.
The billionaire CEO supported both former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson and Nikki Haley in the 2024 Presidential election before eventually throwing his financial support behind President-elect Trump, donating $2.2 Million to various political action committees supporting Trump.
Though Stephens gave $2.2 Million to Trump during the 2024 Election cycle, it was former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, Trump’s chief challenger in the Republican Presidential primaries, that raked in the most money from Stephens during the 2024 Election cycle.
The billionaire handed Haley’s SFA Fund, and various political action committees over $2.8 Million before Haley’s exit from the Presidential race on March 6th, 2024. See evidence of those donations from Stephens to Haley below,
Stephens, who holds a net worth of over $3.4 Billion, is the CEO of Stephens Inc., a privately held investment bank. Based in Little Rock, Arkansas, Stephens has been a financial supporter of former Arkansas Governor and President Bill Clinton since he was a local politician in the ‘The Natural State’, long before he ever took the oath of office.
The Head Of The Family That “Bankrolled The Clintons”
A 1993 article by the Seattle Times describes Warren Stephens and his immediate relatives as ” The Family That Bankrolled Clintons.” The article shockingly states that Trump’s pick for U.K. Ambassador lit up his family’s 27-story Worthen Bank building in Little Rock red, white, and blue on the night Clinton secure the Presidency in the November 1992 Election.
The Seattle Times claims, verfiably, that Stephens was in large part responsible for the meteoric political rise of the Clintons, bankrolling Clinton’s political activities in Washington D.C. and Arkansas to the fullest extent of his abilities.
It goes on to reveal that the Stephens family gave Clinton his first $100,000 in politics early-on in his political career. In return for his financial support, Stephens and his company handled many of the state’s bond sales during Clinton’s governorship, which lasted from 1979 to 1981, and then again from 1983 to 1992.
Stephens Inc. was involved with approximately 61 percent of the $7 billion worth of bonds issued in Arkansas during the 1980s.
In 1992, when Clinton trailed both incumbent President George H.W. Bush and Independent Presidential candidate and firebrand Ross Perot, The Stephens Family used their Worthen Bank company in order to open up a $3.5 Million line of credit for the fledgling candidate.
The money made all the difference, and Clinton went on to secure a 370 electoral vote throttling of the incumbent Republican President.
What wasn’t largely reported at the time is that Stephens and his company were heavily rewarded for their financial support of the Clintons. In an unbelievable and shockingly apparent ‘quid-pro-quo’ move, Clinton kept an estimated $55 Million in Worthen banks during his 1992 Presidential run.
Stephens Is A Prolific Supporter Of Larry Hogan, Who Harbored A Pedophile In His Home
Slingshot News exclusively confirmed back in February that former Maryland Governor, who at the time was vying for a seat in the U.S. Senate, had harbored a pedophile in his home during a failed 1992 bid for Congress.
Hogan employed an individual he described as a ‘close family friend’, Kevin Lee Hall, who was accused of kidnapping and raping an adolescent boy at gunpoint, driving him to a motel and eventually being arrested by police.
@NewsSlingshot and @launchliberty76 Founder Troy Smith Exposes U.S. Senate Candidate Larry Hogan In Bombshell Report
— Slingshot News (@NewsSlingshot) March 13, 2024
-Jonathan Newell
-Mathew Palmer
-Kevin Lee Hall
-Roy Mcgrath#Maryland #MarylandPolitics #LarryHogan #2024Election pic.twitter.com/tvAGlSa8jy
Slingshot News can now exclusively confirm that Warren Stephens was one of Hogan’s largest financial supporters during his failed 2024 run for U.S. Senate in Maryland. Hogan received over $1 Million from Stephens this cycle through various campaign finance entities. See evidence of these donations below,
Several Republican challengers to Hogan in the Republican Senate Primary in Maryland challenged Hogan to answer for his harboring of a pedophile in his home as exclusively reported by Slingshot News, including U.S. Intelligence agent John Myrick, and candidate Lorie Friend.
Hogan has refused to address the bombshell report.
What does Stephens’ financial connection to Larry Hogan say about his character? Hogan, as addressed in the Slingshot News report, is surrounded, and has been surrounded, by child predators for his entire career.
We documented not one, not two, not three, but four other cases of convicted pedophiles, or suspected child predators that fell under investigation, that happened to be close working associated of the former Maryland Governor.
Luis Borunda, Hogan’s Deputy State Secretary, was charged with distribution of child pornography in 2024. Mathew Palmer, Hogan’s Deputy Legislative Officer, was also charged and convicted with distribution of child pornography.
Jonathan Newell, a Caroline Circuit Court Judge appointed to a lengthy term by Larry Hogan, was raided by the FBI for videotaping children in his bathroom while they changed. Newell was discovered dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest upon the FBI’s arrival at his home on Maryland’s Delmarva peninsula in 2021.
Not only does Hogan have a lengthy history of associating with child predators, but also for being perhaps the most vocal critic within the Republican Party of President-elect Donald Trump.
Hogan proclaimed during the 2024 Election that he would readily vote against Republicans if elected to the U.S. Senate, and further, that he would not vote for President Trump in the 2024 Election, instead writing in the name of deceased ex-President Ronald Reagan.
Hogan has called Trump a ‘criminal’, even going as far as to claim that the President is a ‘dangerous’ figure that is pushing America ‘to the brink’. Why would Warren Stephens donate to both Hogan and Trump, who are diametrically opposed to each other?
Additional research from Slingshot News reveals that Stephens has also donated a considerable amount of money to other prominent anti-Trump politicians and bureaucrats in recent years.
Warren Stephens Dumped $8.5 Million Into Mitch McConnell’s (And John Thune’s) Coffers Since 2022
Since the 2022 Election cycle, billionaire Warren Stephens has given an astounding $8.5 Million to the Senate Leadership Fund, a political action committee established in 2015 by allies of Mitch McConnell.
The fund is used to support mostly establishment Republican Senators across the United States who often lack popular support, but desperately cling to their positions of power. See evidence of Stephens’ donations to McConnell PAC below,
As Republican Senators such as Susan Collins of Maine and James Lankford of Oklahoma begin to voice their willingness to vote against Trump’s nominees in their Senate confirmation hearings, McConnell and those who have funded his war chest will be chiefly responsible for any delay that may occur.
That would point the finger at Warren Stephens, who Trump unbelievably chose as his Ambassador to the United Kingdom.
Stephens has rejected all of Slingshot News’ attempts to reach out to him over his questionable past.
Why Did Trump Select Warren Stephens?
Slingshot News can exclusively report that Stephens allegedly made a large contribution to Trump’s Presidential Library fund in exchange for his nomination to the prestigious position of U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom.
It is estimated that Stephens’ contribution exceeded $50 Million.
We can also exclusively report that Trump is heavily invested in his efforts to fundraise for the building of his Presidential library.
It reportedly made no difference that Stephens is a prolific supporter of Bill Clinton, Larry Hogan, and other establishment politicians who have spent the last 8 years undermining Trump in any way possible.
With the world inching closer to war everyday, and the United Kingdom being one of the most important allies the United States has, the selection of Stephens as Ambassador may prove more consequential than what is traditionally a ‘figure-head’ position.
If the world does inch closer to war, it would be more than alarming to think that the man selected for this important position, while being a financial supporter of the Clintons and known associates of pedophiles, was placed into his position because of a donation to a Presidential library.
Examining Stephens’ qualifications, there is nothing that suggests he is in any way more qualified for this position than anyone who may have been selected for the job, which political insiders tell Slingshot News is often saved for the largest donors to a campaign.
Trump Cabinet Appointments Anger Washington Political Establishment
President-elect Donald Trump has made a number of controversial, yet base-satisfying selections for his most prominent cabinet positions following his resounding 312 point electoral college rout of Vice President Kamala Harris in the November Presidential election.
The appointment of Trump Attorney General Matt Gaetz drew so much scrutiny that the Florida Congressman, who resigned from his post in Florida’s First District in light of receiving his nomination from the 45th and 47th President, was forced to withdraw from consideration.
Other appointments, such as former Democrat Representative Tulsi Gabbard to Director of National Intelligence, to former Chief of Staff to the U.S. Secretary of Defense Kash Patel as FBI Director, while satisfying Trump’s hardcore base, have received equally harsh coverage from the mainstream media. This onslaught of negative media coverage has been coupled with threats from Senators, both Republican and Democrat, that they will torpedo the confirmation hearings of Trump’s selections.
New Senate Republican Leader John Thune has said that Patel will face a ‘rigorous’ vetting process during his confirmation hearing. U.S. Senator from Maine Susan Collins has said that she will have to ‘pore’ over the confirmation of Trump’s FBI Director selection.
North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis stated that there would have to be “digging into some of the work that he [Patel] did in various roles of the Trump administration, what he’s done after that.”
Trump Team Agrees To Increased FBI Background Checks After Calls From Schumer, Top Democrats
Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer has called for increased background checks for Trump’s cabinet selections to be conducted by the FBI. Several Democrat lawmakers have voiced agreement with Schumer’s request.
Former Senate counsels Noah Bookbinder and Gregg Nunziata published an op-ed in the New York Times calling for Trump’s cabinet selections to undergo increased background checks conducted by the FBI. The Trump team has reportedly agreed to allow the FBI to conduct these background checks, according to the New York Times.
Trump’s choice of Warren Stephens as U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom is dumbfounding to say the least. It shows a stark departure from his strategy used to this point, and may mark a turning point in how he is selecting members of his cabinet.