 In 2011, he accompanied the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on a visit to the White House during Barack Obama's presidency, in his capacity as Secretary of Transportation and also as a foe of (former Iraqi president) Saddam Hussein.On 31 December 2019, along with Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, Qais Khazali, and Falih Alfayyadh, he was identified by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as a leader of the attack on the United States embassy in Baghdad.In the aftermath of the 2020 Baghdad International Airport airstrike which resulted in the deaths of Qasem Soleimani and al-Muhandis, al-Amiri was seen as a candidate to replace al-Muhandis as a leader of the Popular Mobilization Forces, an Iraqi coalition of militias which fought against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorist group.