Who is Anji Sinha, Trump’s pick to be ambassador to Singapore?
At this point, nothing much is known about the person nominated by US President Donald Trump to become the top American diplomat in Singapore beyond his or her name.
The “Dr” title narrows the field, but only just. Is Dr Sinha a member of the healing profession or an academic?
The heavy Florida presence in the Trump administration – including four people in his Cabinet and many others as key aides and ambassadors nominated to other capitals – has led to the assumption that the next US ambassador to Singapore is an Indian-American doctor from Mr Trump’s home state.
In a cryptic Truth Social post on March 11, Mr Trump gave few clues about his chosen nominee. “I am happy to announce that Dr Anji Sinha will be the next United States ambassador to Singapore. Anji is a highly respected entrepreneur, with an incredible family.”
Requests to the White House and the National Security Council for the nominee’s curriculum vitae and photograph were met with a polite referral to the State Department. The State Department stayed mum.
At the Dirksen Senate Office Building, a Senate Committee on Foreign Relations staff member said a confirmation hearing for Mr Trump’s Singapore ambassador had not yet been scheduled.
Mr Trump’s announcement sent many analysts on a hunt for more information about the person who would represent the US in one of Singapore’s most important bilateral relationships.
Some narrowed in on Dr Anjani Sinha, an orthopaedic surgeon who has practised in Flushing, New York, and Boca Raton, Florida. “Anji”, they speculated, could be a shortened version of his first name.
Among these analysts was Mr Steve Okun, the chief executive of APAC Advisors and a former chief of the American Chamber of Commerce Singapore.
Mr Okun, in a LinkedIn post, said that he believed orthopaedic surgeon Anjani Sinha is the person President Trump referred to in announcing his nominee to be US ambassador to Singapore.
Calls from The Straits Times to clinics where the surgeon is listed as a practitioner went unanswered.
Information online shows that the doctor, said to be in his 70s, has been in the field for over 50 years, specialising in conditions like frozen shoulder and other musculoskeletal issues.
Some digging reveals an apparent link, however tenuous and distant, between him and the President.
Checks show that a Dr Anji Sinha, with addresses listed in Glen Head and Upper Brookville, New York, and West Palm Beach, Florida, had made US$4,500 (S$6,000) in political contributions, including to the Trump 2024 campaign.
It is not a large sum, considering that ambassadorial nominees have often donated in excess of US$2 million. “He could have contributed more to super political action committees which will not list his name,” suggested a Washington-based politician.
But it is a leap from the operating theatre to ambassadorship. And someone else could well be the nominee.
The Palm Beach surgeon’s public record shows no involvement in diplomacy, international relations or political activities that would typically align with an ambassadorial nomination.
Also, there is no track record of him having been an entrepreneur, as Mr Trump described him.
Several Republicans with deep roots in Florida politics said they had not heard of Dr Anji Sinha. One of them told ST that he had checked with staff of former Florida senator Marco Rubio, now secretary of state, but none had heard of him.
There could be other reasons for the administration’s reticence. A Republican strategist told ST that the Trump administration was being guarded with the nomination process.
“The people who have been nominated for ambassador have been highly vetted. They had to fill out an application explaining why they wanted to be ambassador, they had to pass an interview, and had to be recommended by others,” said the strategist who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak on this sensitive matter.
“They have been very careful this time because they got a lot of flak last time for the nominations,” he said.
In his first term, Mr Trump’s choices were criticised for a perceived lack of qualifications, having a controversial past or having conflicts of interest.
A senior US-based Asia analyst said about Mr Trump’s nominee: “The mention of the family is probably some clue. Maybe the relative of a campaign donor or Republican-connected activist, but who doesn’t have at least some web presence and why wasn’t a bio sketch circulated?”
When an American president appoints an envoy to an important capital, he gives play to his constitutional authority, political tradition and pragmatism.
The name emerges sometimes in consultation with his key political allies and the secretary of state. But there are no formal criteria beyond being a US citizen and passing a background check to ascertain no conflicts of interest.
Since 1987, only one US ambassador to Singapore was a career diplomat.
In the early years, US diplomatic posts were often filled by prominent citizens, like Benjamin Franklin in France. It was during the presidency of Andrew Jackson in the 19th century that the “spoils system” became ingrained and ambassadorships were used to repay supporters or secure loyalty.
But the system has advantages: Political appointees have a direct line to the White House, enabling quick decision-making. And they can enhance US soft power: Former president Barack Obama’s appointment of Ms Caroline Kennedy to Japan (2013 to 2017) lent an aura of mystique to the post. The daughter of iconic president John F. Kennedy was later sent to Australia by former president Joe Biden.
Sometimes, political appointees rise in stature as diplomats, like Mr Jon Huntsman, who served as former president George H. W. Bush’s Singapore ambassador at the age of 32 from 1992 to 1993. He is the only American ambassador to have served in both Russia and China, having been sent to Beijing by Mr Obama and to Moscow by Mr Trump.
Sometimes, a nomination can backfire. In 2014, Mr Obama nominated a major fund raiser, Mr George Tsunis, who had given his campaign US$1.3 million, for the post in Norway.
Mr Tsunis, a wealthy New York hotelier who had never been to Norway, fumbled during his nomination hearing before the Senate, much to the embarrassment of the administration.
The “ambassadonor” wrongly said Norway had a president (the constitutional monarchy is led by an elected prime minister) and described a coalition partner of the then ruling government as a “fringe element” that “spewed hatred”.
Eventually, under opposition from lawmakers from the Midwest where there is a concentration of Norwegian-Americans, he withdrew his nomination.
That episode throws up the lack of diplomatic experience of political appointees. While career diplomats would have spent decades immersed in the minutiae of foreign policy, political appointees usually get a crash course at the State Department’s Foreign Service Institute.
The short “ambassadorial seminar” covers things like diplomatic etiquette, the basics of US foreign policy and a run-through of the salient political and cultural issues relevant to the host country.
In recent years, the Obama administration has been noted for giving more ambassadorships to political appointees. While the usual number stands at about 30 per cent since World War II, Mr Obama was at 35 per cent in his first term and 41 per cent in his second.
Mr Trump went even higher in his first term, with roughly 44 per cent of his ambassadorial posts going to political appointees, according to data tracked by the American Foreign Service Association. During his single term, Mr Biden was at 41 per cent.
- Bhagyashree Garekar is The Straits Times’ US bureau chief. Her previous key roles were as the newspaper’s foreign editor (2020-2023) and as its US correspondent during the Bush and Obama administrations.
- With inputs from Carmen Sesin in Miami