President Trump has nominated Gordon Sondland, a Portland hotel magnate and major donor to the president, to be ambassador to the European Union.

The nomination, announced by the White House on Thursday, makes Sondland, 60, the Oregonian who would have the highest-ranking position within the Trump administration if confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

Sondland's nomination comes more than a year after he gave $1 million to Trump's inauguration committee. The money was donated by companies Sondland owns but that do not directly bear his name.

The hotelier had long been considered for an ambassadorship, as big donors to presidential candidates often are. The Oregonian reported in September 2017 that a State Department investigator had visited Sondland's Portland neighborhood to vet him for a security clearance, a sign he was in line for a diplomatic post.

The Wall Street Journal reported in March that Sondland was being considered for the E.U. job, a pivotal ambassadorship given ever-rising tensions between the U.S. and Europe.

It's unclear what experience Sondland has with European political affairs, if any. However, Sondland is the son of German immigrants who escaped Nazi persecution and speaks German, has traveled extensively in Europe and orchestrated international business deals, according to his spokesman.

Sondland declined to comment Friday. Oregon's U.S. senators, Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, were not available for comment.

Sondland's business partner, Bashar Wali, said in a statement that Sondland "is a self-made American success story" and said his business acumen will serve him well at the European Union.

Sondland, who has residences in Oregon and Washington state, is founder and chief executive of Provenance Hotels, which owns and operates The Heathman Hotel, the Sentinel, The Benson, Hotel deLuxe, Hotel Lucia, and the Dossier. He previously ran a commercial loans bank, Aspen Capital, sat on the U.S. Bancorp advisory board, served as a finance executive within the Republican National Committee, and advised Democratic Gov. Ted Kulongoski's transition team. Sondland is married to Katy Durant, the former head of the board that controls investments of Oregon's public pension fund.

Trump and Sondland have had a complicated relationship. Sondland originally backed Jeb Bush for the GOP nomination, and held a fundraiser for the former Florida governor at his West Hills home and sat on his Jewish leadership advisory team.

Later, after Bush sank in the polls, Sondland was listed as host of a Seattle fundraiser for Trump. Sondland and Wali, his business partner, backed away from supporting the TV star turned candidate after he began a feud with Khizr and Ghazala Khan, parents of a Muslim-American soldier killed in action, saying through a spokeswoman at the time that they cannot "support this candidacy."

Sondland has been active in Portland's business and hospitality market for at least 30 years, when he bought the historic Benson Hotel in 1988. Sondland later fought efforts to build a hotel at the Oregon Convention Center. The tussle spanned a decade and three lawsuits until Metro, the regional government, cut a deal with Sondland where he dropped his lawsuits in exchange for being given a high-value parking lot near the convention hall with rights to build anything he wants on it, including a competing hotel.

Trump has sought to elevate other Oregonians into high-ranking administration jobs. The president made George Glass, a Lake Oswego businessman, ambassador to Portugal, and installed former state Rep. John Huffman as a U.S. Department of Agriculture manager. Portland native Kate O'Scannlain was tapped for the top attorney job at the U.S. Department of Labor and her brother, Kevin O'Scannlain, works as a special assistant to the president and in the Office of White House Counsel. Both are children of Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Not all Trump's nominees with Portland ties have sailed through confirmation. Trump picked Portland native Eric Ueland to be the third-ranking official at the State Department, but Ueland's nomination has stalled due to senators' "serious doubts" about his abilities, according to Merkley's office.

-- Gordon R. Friedman

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