NEW YORK — President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Rep. Elise Stefanik to serve as ambassador to the United Nations, choosing a staunch ally with little foreign policy experience to represent the United States at the international organization.

“Elise is an incredibly strong, tough and smart America First fighter,” Trump said Monday when announcing his selection for the role; This is the first election to require Senate confirmation.

Stefanik, 40, who serves as the House Republican Conference Chair, has long been one of Trump’s staunchest allies in the House of Representatives and has been among those being discussed as a potential vice presidential pick.

It will delve into deep divisions around the world, from wars in the Middle East and Ukraine to reining in nuclear programs in North Korea and Iran.

He will also face almost every day at the U.N. Security Council the ambassadors of Russia and China, whose countries are now strong allies and wary of a second Trump presidency, and sometimes with their counterparts in North Korea and Iran.

Stefanik will replace U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, a career diplomat and former deputy secretary of state for Africa who served in the role throughout the Biden administration and was a member of the Cabinet. The statement said Stefanik will also be a member of Trump’s Cabinet.

In his first administration, Trump chose former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, who had little foreign experience other than some trade missions, for the U.N. post. He resigned two years later and challenged Trump for the GOP nomination. Haley was replaced by U.S. ambassador to Canada Kelly Craft, the wife of a Kentucky coal magnate who unsuccessfully bid for the GOP nomination for state governor in 2023.

John Bolton, a former U.S. national security adviser under Trump and U.N. ambassador during the Bush administration, told The Associated Press that he sees Stefanik as the 2024 version of Haley.