President Donald Trump has chosen Sergio Gor, the director of presidential personnel, to be the next ambassador to India, he announced Friday on Truth Social. Trump depicted the nomination as a promotion, but he may have been offering a soft landing to the embattled staffer.

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Gor sparked the fiery falling-out this summer between Trump and the world’s richest man Elon Musk, the New York Post reported. Gor had played a role in Trump's yanking the nomination of Jared Isaacman, a friend of Musk, as head of NASA, triggering a flurry of harsh insults between the president and former ally.

Rumors spread over the past week that Gor would be nominated ambassador to the small island nation Malta, which he calls his home country. But questions have emerged about Gor’s national origin, with the Times of Malta reporting last month that he was born in Uzbekistan.

Gor’s nomination to be ambassador to India comes at a time of elevated tensions between that country, the most populous in the world, and America. India faces a massive 50 percent tariff rate on exports to the United States, as Trump punishes its purchasing of Russian oil.