President of Singapore
The President of the Republic of Singapore is the country's head of state. Singapore has a parliamentary system of government. Executive authority is exercised by the Cabinet led by the Prime Minister of Singapore. The current president is Halimah Yacob, who was elected unopposed at the 2017 presidential election. She is the first female President of Singapore and first Malay head of state in 47 years since the death of Yusof Bin Ishak, Singapore's first president.
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.