Four Iowans confirmed for roles in Trump Administration

News

October 8th, 2025 by Ric Hanson

Four Iowans have won U.S. Senate confirmation to posts in the Trump Administration. Leif Olson, a top deputy in Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird’s office, is now the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa. David Waterman, a Davenport attorney who previously worked in a U.S. Attorney’s Office in Florida, is now the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Iowa. David Barker of Iowa City is now Assistant U.S. Secretary for Postsecondary Education in the U.S. Department of Education. He’s been a member of the board that governs Iowa’s three state universities since May of 2019.

And Iowa native James Holtsnider has been confirmed as U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Jordan. He served for six years in the Marine Corps and earned a degree in physics before joining the U.S. State Department as a foreign service officer.