Trump taps Mondello for ambassadorship

Joseph Mondello has waited a long time for his letters-of-transit papers out of Nassau County to the warm Caribbean islands.

President Donald Trump on Monday formally nominated the longtime Nassau County Republican chairman to be ambassador to the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Mondello, who turned 80 last month, went through “ambassador school” training with six other potential nominees in December. In February, he was told his name would be put forward any day, but Mondello had anticipated the next stage in his career for more than year.

Next up will be hearings before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a confirmation vote by the full Senate. Neither of New York’s two Democratic senators, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, are expected to block or slow down the process, according to Republican sources.

Mondello said he has never visited the wealthy twin islands in the south Carribean, where English is the langugage and oil is the biggest commodity. Besides being a listening post for troubled nearby Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago had the highest per capita rate of Islamic State recruitment in the Western Hemisphere, according to the State Departmemt website. In February, the government there disrupted a plot to attack its Carnival celebration last month.

Trump knows Mondello from his days as a developer and once hired him to work on a project. More recently, he worked with the Nassau GOP chairman to win New York’s presidential primary in 2016, and the following month, Trump appeared at the county GOP’s annual fundraiser.

This will be the second ambassador from Long Island for Trinidad and Tobago. George H.W. Bush appointed Charles A. Gargano, then of Dix Hills, to the job in 1988 and he served until 1991. Gargano, a former vice president and general supervisor of construction and engineering at J.D. Posillico Inc., was a major fundraiser for George Pataki in his upset win over Mario Cuomo in 1994.And what else do Gargano and Mondello have in common? Former Sen. Alfonse D’Amato, who was a close ally of Gargano and who, like Mondello, rose from the Nassau GOP machine once headed by Joseph Margiotta.

Rita Ciolli is editor of Newsday’s editorial pages.