Pete Hoekstra, a contributor to Project 2025’s over 900-page Mandate for Leadership, was chosen as Trump’s nominee for ambassador to Canada. 

Hoekstra, formerly a visiting distinguished fellow at The Heritage Foundation, served as ambassador to his home country the Netherlands during the previous Trump administration.

While one might normally expect him to return to his previous post as ambassador to the Netherlands – he lived there until he was three and served as ambassador for two years – Hoekstra’s tenure was marked by major controversies, making it unlikely that he would be welcomed back.

The first scandal began before he ever arrived: in 2015 he lied about the Netherlands, claiming that Muslim immigrants were attacking Dutch citizens, creating “no-go zones,” and that politicians and cars were being set on fire due to radical Islam. When a Dutch news station questioned him about the lies, he called it fake news; when the host played the clip of him saying it, he then claimed that he never called it fake news. He refused to answer questions about the issue when he arrived to take his post as ambassador, but eventually retracted those statements after the State Department condemned his lies.

His term ended much the way it began, with Dutch lawmakers accusing Hoekstra of violating international law in September 2020. Hoekstra hosted an event for the far-right Forum for Democracy (FvD) party, which included wealthy business owners. The event was held at the U.S. Embassy in The Hague. 

Dutch lawmakers argued that the event was more like a fundraiser than a standard meet-and-greet; if that were true, the event would have broken the Vienna Convention, which bans foreign diplomats from interfering with domestic politics.

Hoekstra and the State Department denied that it was a fundraising event, but it was not the first time Hoekstra had worked with the FvD: he was interviewed by the party leader earlier that year and spoke at the party’s conference in 2019.

There is no reason to believe Hoekstra’s behavior will improve if he’s stationed in Canada instead. He has a long history of poor judgment calls and lying about Muslim people or nations. As chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, he approved the decision to post blueprints for nuclear bombs on the internet, a decision made even more absurd by the fact that Hoekstra oversaw the Congressional committee that lied about Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

Rather than strengthening relationships with our allies, Hoekstra’s primary diplomatic skill appears to be negotiating new international scandals.