President of Singapore
The eighth and current president, Halimah Yacob, took office on 14 September 2017, becoming the first president elected as she was the sole eligible candidate under the new reform terms which took effect earlier that year. She is also the first female President of Singapore.
K. T. McFarland
After Ricky L. Waddell was nominated to succeed her as Deputy National Security Advisor on May 10, 2017, she was officially announced as Trump's nominee for U.S. Ambassador to Singapore on May 19, 2017. Singapore-based newspaper "The Straits Times" noted that all U.S. Ambassadors to Singapore had been political appointees since 1986. On June 15, 2017, McFarland was formally nominated by the White House, and her confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee took place on July 20, 2017, during which she described Singapore's importance with the real estate maxim "location, location, location". McFarland also stated that she believed Russia had interfered in the 2016 U.S. elections. On September 19, McFarland's confirmation was approved by the Committee and was sent on to the full Senate, but as of the end of November her nomination was not scheduled for a vote in the full Senate.