As Spain roils over a contentious bid for independence from one of its most prosperous regions, Donald Trump’s nominee for ambassador to the country prepares to take center stage.
Ex-hedge funder and Trump super-donor Duke Buchan will appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Wednesday — the first step in a two-part confirmation process to have him officially named U.S. Ambassador to Spain and Andorra.
Buchan’s committee hearing is one of several Wednesday for other Trump loyalists who have been nominated for plum ambassador spots overseas.
But with Spain struggling with deep political crisis — the possible breakaway of economic powerhouse Catalonia — Buchan’s committee hearing has taken on added interest.
If approved to be ambassador to Spain, Buchan — who distinguished himself among his Wall St. peers as an early and enthusiastic Trump backer — will find himself in deep diplomatic waters with the longtime U.S. ally and NATO partner.
Buchan vaulted into Trump’s inner circle when he and his wife donated $898,000 to Trump Victory in May 2016 — long before other Wall St. wallets were opening for the then-candidate for the GOP presidential nomination.
Even though Buchan’s hedge fund tanked in 2011, he had earned enough in his career to maintain three properties, including one in New York and Florida.
Thanks to a college stint at the University of Sevilla in southern Spain — far away from Catalonia — Buchan speaks fluent Spanish.
He has set up a Spanish language and literature fund in his name at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, his alma mater.
He now maintains a horse farm in Millbrook upstate and often appears at charity and polo events there and in Florida.
Buchan shuns the media, in a The New York Times profile that ran in February, friends said he has long coveted a U.S. ambassadorship to either Spain, Argentina or Uruguay.
Two issues that might come up at Buchan’s hearing connect to his prior business dealings and his charitable life.
Buchan was a board member of an offshore company whose principals were the subject of a federal probe into fraud nearly 20 years ago — although he was never questioned as part of the investigation.
The second relates to questions about his own charity, The Buchan Foundation.
The foundation, set up in 2015, lists Buchan and his wife as the sole two trustees, according to its tax filings.
It got started with a $646,000 donation from Buchan himself — but the charity only spent $8,000 in its first year, the filings show.
It went to legal fees, accounting fees and other basic expenses — but no charitable giving.
The charity also invested some of its funds in stock — but the value dropped by 17% in one year, losing nearly $95,000.
The Buchan Foundation didn’t appear to raise any other money that year, according to its filings.
In 2016, the charity did make a few donations.
Records show it gave $10,000 to the Duchess Land Conservatory. The environmental group is in upstate New York and his wife, Hannah Buchan, sits on its board, according to its website.
Spain’s political crisis was on President Trump’s mind when he met Tuesday with Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy in D.C.
“I really think the people of Catalonia would stay with Spain. I think it would be foolish not to,” he told reporters.
The Spanish government on Tuesday said police would take control of voting booths in Catalonia to help thwart the region’s planned independence referendum that Madrid has declared illegal.
Rajoy has said the referendum is against the law and the constitutional court has ordered it be halted while its legality is determined.
Catalonia’s separatist government, however, remains committed to holding it on Sunday.
