Mike Huckabee, the Trump administration's ambassador to Israel, has been maintaining a lucrative side job promoting a sleep supplement while representing the United States in delicate Middle Eastern diplomacy, according to a recent investigation.
The Commercial Endorsements Continue
Despite his high-profile government position, Huckabee has continued appearing in late-night cable television commercials for Relaxium, a non-FDA-approved sleep supplement. In these advertisements, identified as a 2016 presidential candidate, he explicitly tells viewers: "I trust Relaxium sleep and so should you" while urging them to purchase the product.
Financial disclosures reveal that Huckabee received $414,684 from American Behavioral Research Institute, the manufacturer of Relaxium, in 2024, the year preceding his nomination to the ambassadorial position. The payments continued even after he assumed his diplomatic role in April.
Ethical Questions and Government Response
When questioned about potential ethical concerns regarding the ambassador's commercial endorsement, the U.S. Embassy Jerusalem provided a blunt response to NOTUS: "No. Ambassadors need to sleep, too."
The embassy further explained that Huckabee has "no legal right" to request the company stop using his likeness due to an existing name, image, and likeness agreement signed before his appointment. They emphasized that the ambassador neither owns nor controls the content Relaxium produces.
However, ethics experts have raised serious concerns about the arrangement. Peter Loge, director of the Project on Ethics in Political Communication at George Washington University, stated unequivocally to NOTUS that "government officials should not, and should not appear to be, endorsing a commercial product. Full stop."
Regulatory Warnings and Content Removal
Complicating matters further, the American Behavioral Research Institute received a formal warning from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration earlier this year for failing to submit proper paperwork before sponsoring a clinical trial of Relaxium.
In a significant development following NOTUS's publication of their investigation on Tuesday, the company appeared to remove a video featuring Huckabee from its website. Archive records show the ambassador prominently featured on Relaxium's homepage as recently as September, endorsing the sleep supplement.
Huckabee, who has served as ambassador to Israel since April, has participated in high-level diplomatic missions, including joining Trump's cabinet members on trips aimed at brokering peace deals between Israel and Hamas. The continuation of his commercial endorsement work during this sensitive diplomatic service presents ongoing ethical questions about the separation of government service and commercial interests.
