Trump announced the appointment on Thursday evening, calling Grenell a “highly respected” ambassador who has represented the US “exceedingly well.”
✔@realDonaldTrump
I am pleased to announce that our highly respected Ambassador to Germany, @RichardGrenell, will become the Acting Director of National Intelligence. Rick has represented our Country exceedingly well and I look forward to working with him. I would like to thank Joe Maguire....
✔@realDonaldTrump
....for the wonderful job he has done, and we look forward to working with him closely, perhaps in another capacity within the Administration!
Grenell, 53, has served as US ambassador to Germany since April 2018. He has been instrumental in browbeating Berlin into raising its military spending, imposing sanctions against Iran and Hezbollah, and shutting down the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
He is not very diplomatic about it, either. Earlier this week, he tweeted that US President Donald Trump personally instructed him to “make clear that any nation who chooses to use an untrustworthy 5G vendor will jeopardize our ability to share Intelligence and information at the highest level,” a thinly veiled threat to the UK over reports it would working with Chinese telecom giant Huawei.
✔@RichardGrenell
. @realDonaldTrump just called me from AF1 and instructed me to make clear that any nation who chooses to use an untrustworthy 5G vendor will jeopardize our ability to share Intelligence and information at the highest level.
This is somewhat surprising, given that Grenell spent eight years as spokesman for the US mission to the UN during the George W. Bush administration, serving four different ambassadors – including John Bolton, the recently sacked national security adviser to Trump. He also worked as a spokesman for Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign.
It seems that Trump trusts him, however, and has relied on him for matters beyond Germany – from mediating between Serbia and its breakaway province of Kosovo last month, to reportedly securing the arrest of WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange in the UK last year.
That last part, as well as Grenell’s the Boltonesque belligerence towards Iran, have caused some Trump supporters to question the appointment, even as others cheered it on.
✔@ScottMGreer
Who cares that he's gay?
On foreign policy, he's as bad as his former boss, John Bolton. That's what we should care about. https://twitter.com/thecjpearson/status/1230273296521932800 …
This is somewhat surprising, given that Grenell spent eight years as spokesman for the US mission to the UN during the George W. Bush administration, serving four different ambassadors – including John Bolton, the recently sacked national security adviser to Trump. He also worked as a spokesman for Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign.
It seems that Trump trusts him, however, and has relied on him for matters beyond Germany – from mediating between Serbia and its breakaway province of Kosovo last month, to reportedly securing the arrest of WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange in the UK last year.
That last part, as well as Grenell’s the Boltonesque belligerence towards Iran, have caused some Trump supporters to question the appointment, even as others cheered it on.
✔@ScottMGreer
Who cares that he's gay?
On foreign policy, he's as bad as his former boss, John Bolton. That's what we should care about. https://twitter.com/thecjpearson/status/1230273296521932800 …
✔@thecjpearson
Our supposed bigot-in-chief is appointing @RichardGrenell the Director of National Intelligence, who will be, once official, the first openly gay person to serve in any President’s cabinet.
If @realDonaldTrump is homophobic, he’s so bad at it.
Our supposed bigot-in-chief is appointing @RichardGrenell the Director of National Intelligence, who will be, once official, the first openly gay person to serve in any President’s cabinet.
If @realDonaldTrump is homophobic, he’s so bad at it.
“Amazing choice!”tweeted the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr, adding that his father “deserves someone he can trust and someone who knows how to get things done in this position.”
The main reason for jubilation among the MAGA crowd appears to be the belief that Grenell will purge the US intelligence community of the elements involved in the ‘Russiagate’ and ‘Ukrainegate’ plots to stop Trump’s election and have him impeached.
✔@JordanSchachtel
Clapper lied to Congress & was one of the IC chiefs that launched the Russia hoax campaign against a duly elected POTUS.
Grenell, who indeed has an extensive history of gov't service, has no history of aforementioned illegal acts committed by Clapper.https://twitter.com/vermontgmg/status/1230265173014908931?s=20 …
Garrett M. Graff
✔@vermontgmg
Reminder: Jim Clapper spent 50 years in intelligence, headed two agencies, and served as the Under Sec of intel at the Pentagon before becoming DNI. Ric Grenell was ... a notably rude Twitter troll. https://twitter.com/maggienyt/status/1230262310847029248 …
“The so-called intelligence community is a rats’ nest of incompetence and corruption, and I can’t wait for their hysterical reaction to Grenell’s appointment,” wrote Federalist publisher Sean Davis.
✔@seanmdav
The so-called intelligence community is a rats’ nest of incompetence and corruption, and I can’t wait for their hysterical reaction to Grenell’s appointment. If they thought they’d win after what they pulled with John Ratcliffe, they were sorely mistaken. https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/1230266616304340993 …
✔@seanmdav
Great pick. As U.S. ambassador to the country with the largest economy in the EU, Grenell has a ton of successful experience coordinating intel and national security policy. https://twitter.com/charliespiering/status/1230265285917233152
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