Brandon Judd (54 years old, Arizona), the United States ambassador to Chile appointed by Donald Trump, landed in November 2025 in the South American country with a style that is languageless for the usual diplomatic canons. In just three months, the Foreign Ministry of Gabriel Boric’s Government has sent two notes of protest to the White House. The first was when Judd debuted at a press conference and, before receiving official credentials, pointed out that Boric “is harming Chileans” because of the criticism he has made of Trump’s environmental policy. The second was on February 20, in the midst of controversies over the Chinese submarine fiber optic cable, which proposes to link the Valparaíso Region with Hong Kong, and which the United States opposes on the grounds that it undermines “regional security.” The left-wing Executive, which on January 27 approved and annulled the concession in 48 hours, has put the project on hold, transferring its approval or rejection to the Administration of Republican José Antonio Kast, who takes office on March 11. The former US Border Patrol agent (between 1997 and 2023) and former union leader has said that President Trump sent him to Chile to grow the economy and limit crime. His agenda is saturated with business meetings and he has already accumulated some meetings with those responsible for local security. A message that he has reiterated in press conferences and interviews is that he is looking forward to Kast’s arrival at La Moneda, an Administration that has not yet begun, but with which he is already working. With an energetic style, he has led a marathon business agenda. In the almost twenty meetings that he has held in different cities in Chile, such as Antofagasta and Valparaíso, he has shared with representatives of Uber, Google, and the state-owned Codelco. Also with the National Agricultural Society, where he defended the new tariff policy, something that the agricultural union rejects because it considers that it does not respect the Free Trade Agreement signed between both countries. Those who have met with Judd assure that they see a tone and manner that is not consistent with the historical relationship that Chile has had with the United States, but that they hope that the affection that he claims to have for the South American country will translate into prosperity.
“I wanted to start my mission here”
When Trump won the presidential election for the second time in November 2024, Judd asked him to appoint him ambassador to Chile. The father of six had recently retired as an agent and as president of the National Border Patrol Council, a federal union where he represented about 18,000 colleagues. He had worked under the harsh sun of Arizona and freezing Montana and, although he was retired with his wife AnnaMarie in the small town of Pocatello, in southeastern Idaho, he had unfinished business with the South American country. As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he had been a Mormon missionary for two years, in the 1990s, in the municipality of La Ligua, 150 kilometers north of Santiago, and wanted to return. Although he was Trump’s fourth choice for the position, according to what he said in a meeting with journalists, the US president finally appointed him. Judd had supported him since his first presidential foray in 2016 and they had worked since then “on the development and implementation of border security policies.” Under his first Administration, Trump applied the “zero tolerance” policy, which ended up separating more than 4,600 migrant children from their parents. Two days after his arrival in Chile, on November 12, 2025, Judd shared a video on his social networks, where he is very active: “I wanted to start my mission here, in La Ligua, because it is a special place for me,” he said in fluent Spanish. That same week he met with Boric’s foreign minister, Alberto Van Klaveren: they discussed the exchange of information to confront organized crime, irregular immigration, and opportunities to intensify technology transfer and deepen US investments. He also participated in a first meeting with the Chilean North American Chamber of Commerce—since then, they have met five other times—, went to the celebration of McDonald’s 35 years in Chile, and held a meeting with representatives of the North American mining company Albemarle, which operates in the Atacama salt flat. The diplomatic landing seemed to follow the traditional script, with an evident focus on commercial matters, until Judd called a press conference to introduce himself at the embassy on November 20. He did it three days after the presidential election, when Kast went to the second round with Jeannette Jara, a communist and left-wing candidate. His speech led to the first of two notes of protest from Chile. In addition to pointing out that he felt “very disappointed” by Boric’s criticism of Trump for his stance on climate change, and that his rhetoric was “harming Chileans,” he assured that Washington would work with whatever leader the Chileans choose in the runoff, although he added: “There are governments that are ideologically in line with us and it will be easier to work with them.” The United States ambassador to Chile, Brandon Judd, at the American embassy in Santiago de Chile. Pablo Sanhueza (REUTERS) For van Klaveren, the new ambassador’s statements were “inappropriate and unfortunate.” And he added: “It represents an intervention in the internal affairs of our country.” That episode marked a precedent in the tense relationship between the US embassy and the Boric Government, and which has only worsened. At the end of December, Judd told El Mercurio de Antofagasta that since Trump was elected, the left-wing Administration “has cut off almost all communication.” “Right now we do not work with this Government,” he said, clarifying that he was referring to the president. And in an interview with La Tercera the first week of February, he said he was “excited” about Kast’s arrival at La Moneda. “We are working very hard with that Administration and we are going to continue working with the current one,” he noted. The turning point in the complex relationship—and Judd’s greatest role in national politics—has been due to the diplomatic crisis generated by the Chinese submarine laying. On February 20, the State Department accused the Boric Government of undermining regional security, and revoked the visas of three officials linked to the project, including the Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications, Juan Carlos Muñoz. The Chilean Foreign Minister called the US accusation “absolutely false” and assured that the measure was unilateral and that it “violates the independence and sovereignty” of Chile. That same afternoon of Friday the 20th, van Klaveren summoned Judd, and said that it was the ambassador who explained to him that the measure was applied based on a request for authorization from two private Chinese companies to the Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications for the laying of the submarine cable, and that the Trump Government «estimates that this cable could in some way represent a threat to its security.» Three days later, Judd gave a press conference at the embassy. There he highlighted the other submarine cable that is underway in Chile, the Humboldt, in alliance between the Boric Government and the North American company Google. For the ambassador, it is “a perfect example of an infrastructure project that not only protects sovereignty, but strengthens it.” He also defended the revocation of three visas and added information that the Boric Government had not commented publicly, such as that, weeks ago, it had shared information with several Executive officials about hacking into Chilean telecommunications systems by “foreign evil actors” that it did not identify. Judd then earned new criticism from Boric’s foreign minister, since in his statement he also said that he found it “laughable” that the Chilean authorities were surprised by the United States sanction for the cable. «Over the last two months I have had a large number of meetings with ministers and government officials on this issue. I was very clear about our concern, and frank, about the threats not only to Chilean security, but to the security of the entire region.» Beginning March 11, Judd will begin engaging with the Kast Administration. «The Chilean people voted massively for change. They voted for security and prosperity. We look forward to working with the new Government to provide what the Chilean people demanded,» he said Monday.
