Nathan Samuels

From Memory Alpha, the free Star Trek reference.

Minister Nathan Samuels was an United Earth politician during the 22nd century. In 2155, Samuels presided over discussions in San Francisco between delegates from several planets regarding membership within a "Coalition of Planets". Samuels' desire to create an alliance of worlds stemmed from the Xindi attack of 2153, wherein seven million Humans were killed; Samuels believed, following the attack, that Earth's survival depended upon creating alliances with other worlds. Samuels' goal proved far more fruitful than anyone could have expected, and helped to lay the groundwork for what would ultimately become the United Federation of Planets in 2161.

In his late teens, Samuels's father died in a cargo ship accident. He joined Terra Prime at age eighteen because he blamed the cargo ship's Denobulan pilot and felt anger towards all alien species. However, Samuels later quit the group.

When approached by Captain Archer during the treaty discussions in 2155, Samuels refused to assist the captain, who had requested a case file on John Frederick Paxton and Terra Prime. Archer informed Samuels that he was aware of the minister's past. When confronted with this, Samuels got the file Archer needed.

Samuels underestimated Archer's investigative skills, and conspicuously failed to mention the Enterprise's contributions to the process of forming an interspecies alliance. However, after a failed attempt by the Terra Prime organization to rid the Earth and the Sol system of alien influence, Samuels amended his error, allowing Archer to convince the other ambassadors to continue discussions for an alliance with Earth. (ENT: "Demons", "Terra Prime")

Samuels was played by Trek regular Harry Groener.

Some fans have speculated that Samuels was the chief executive or Prime Minister of the United Earth government. He is not legally empowered to give orders while aboard the NX-01; Hoshi Sato, at one point, noted that Samuels was not a part of the chain of command and could not issue orders to her nor to anyone else on the ship. If Samuels was the commander-in-chief of the United Earth Starfleet, he would be legally empowered to give such orders, but some parliamentary governments do not give such powers to the prime minister, instead reserving them for an apolitical president (or monarch) who issues such orders to the military on the advise of the Cabinet and PM. It is also possible that regulations have changed in the intervening years such that, in this time period, no civilian - not even the Prime Minister - is allowed to give orders aboard a military vessel, though the United Earth Starfleet is specifically established to be non-military in "The Expanse."

Also, the head of government in a parliamentary system is more regularly addressed with the full title of "Prime Minister," not simply "Minister," suggesting that Minister Samuels holds a Cabinet posting but not the Prime Minister posting. In the novel The Good That Men Do by Andy Mangels and Michael A. Martin, however, Samuels is specifically named as the Prime Minister.