Bill White, who helped spearhead the Buckhead City movement, has been chosen as President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to be the U.S. ambassador to Belgium. (Hyosub Shin, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution/TNS)
ATLANTA (Tribune News Service) — President-elect Donald Trump plans to nominate Bill White to be the U.S. ambassador to Belgium, boosting a prodigious fundraiser who helped raise millions for his campaigns while ruffling feathers within the Georgia Republican establishment.
White quickly emerged as a political force after moving to Georgia from New York, stamping himself as an influential local MAGA booster and the leader of a yearslong effort to split Atlanta into two municipalities.
In a statement released Saturday, Trump called White a “highly respected businessman, philanthropist, author and advocate” for military and veterans, singling out his work championing the floating military museum aboard the World War II-era aircraft carrier the USS Intrepid.
White told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution he and his husband Bryan Eure spoke with Trump late Friday and “learned how important this post is to him.”
“We look forward to working tirelessly and giving our all in support of President Trump as he implements his critically important America First policies,” he said.
White, who must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, is the latest Trump ally to be rewarded with a post in his incoming administration.
Trump also tapped former U.S. Rep. Doug Collins and former U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler to Cabinet-level posts. And the president-elect said he’ll nominate former U.S. Sen. David Perdue as his ambassador to China.
An elite fundraiser in New York, White moved to Georgia in 2018 to be closer to Eure’s family and soon began mingling in GOP political and donor circles.
After the 2020 election, White helped raise funds to underwrite Trump’s legal team as it questioned vote counts in several states. White called for recounts and court challenges seeking to overturn the election.
He also grew more active in his neighborhood organization in Buckhead, soon became the most prominent advocate of a cityhood movement that backed splitting Atlanta in two.
He picked fights with Gov. Brian Kemp and other top Republicans who opposed the Buckhead cityhood initiative, accusing the second-term governor in 2023 of acting in a “ shady, sleazy, backdoor kind of way “ to squelch the breakaway push.
Days earlier, the Georgia Senate resoundingly put down the cityhood secession movement after Lt. Gov. Burt Jones allowed the vote to go forward. White threw in the towel, decamping for the North Georgia mountains and, later, a waterside villa in Florida.
He recently sold that West Palm Beach property to casino mogul Steve Wynn, who reportedly paid for $12.9 million for the three-bedroom place that sits a short hop from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
White, meanwhile, stayed involved in state and national politics from afar. He helped organize high-dollar fundraisers for Trump’s comeback bid in Atlanta and beyond and was a constant presence at his rallies in Georgia.
He seconded Trump in August when the former president unleashed a 10-minute tirade accusing Kemp and other Georgia Republicans of not working forcefully enough to back his campaign. And he quickly donated to a pro-Kemp PAC after the two reached a truce.
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