Richard Grenell

Richard Grenell served as Trump’s acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI), Special Presidential Envoy for Serbia and Kosovo Peace Negotiations, and U.S. Ambassador to Germany. While Acting DNI, Grenell declassified transcripts of Russia probe interviews to try to discredit the DOJ’s Trump-Russia investigation. In the words of Steve Bannon: “Trump trusts [Grenell] as a pair of safe hands in deconstructing the administrative state and confronting the deep state.” The Guardian highlights Grenell’s work “courting the global far right” to “form [an] authoritarian axis” and reports that Trump has called Grenell “my envoy.” Susan Rice has called Grenell “one of the most nasty, dishonest people I’ve ever encountered.”

Grenell, along with his senior advisor Kash Patel, used his three month post as DNI, at the helm of all of the 17 members of the Intelligence Community, to make significant and politicized changes. These include displacing the role of the FBI in leading briefings for presidential candidates on election security threats and aiding in the declassification and release of 57 transcripts of Russia probe interviews by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, a maneuver criticized by Democrats for how it selectively portrayed the election interference probes. Grenell also declassified the names of intelligence community officials who had participated in the process of “unmasking” Michael Flynn’s communications in order to “discredit the Justice Department’s Trump-Russia investigation,” and reorganized the ODNI’s cybersecurity operations - which had assisted in tracking Russia’s documented efforts to affect the outcome of the 2016 and 2020 elections - in defiance of congressional oversight concerns.

Reporting from multiple sources paints a picture of Grenell as a “vain, narcissistic person who dishes out aggressively, but can barely handle criticism. His brash demeanor hides a deep insecurity and he thirsts for the approval of others.” When he became the 2012 Romney campaign’s foreign policy spokesman, a 20-year Reuters veteran journalist called Grenell “the most dishonest and deceptive press person I ever worked with.”

While U.S. Ambassador to Germany, Grenell lamented on Tucker Carlson Tonight that anyone who criticizes German immigration policies will be portrayed by German media as the “radical far-right.” As Der Spiegel reported, this was one of multiple occasions where Grenell may have crossed a line that violated Article 41 of the Vienna Convention that says diplomats are to refrain from meddling in their guest country’s domestic affairs. In fact, on the day he took up his post in Berlin, Grenell tweeted that “German companies doing business in Iran should wind down operations immediately.” Less than a month later, he told Breitbart News that he “absolutely want[s] to empower other conservatives throughout Europe, other leaders.” The comment led German politicians to call for Grenell’s dismissal.

As Special Envoy for Serbia and Kosovo Peace Negotiations, Grenell “put extraordinary pressure on the Government of Kosovo,” one of the U.S.’s most ardent supporters after their intervention in the Serbian government’s ethnic cleansing of the Kosovo people (largely Muslim). Then Prime Minister Albin Kurti, who campaigned on an anti-corruption platform, said Grenell wanted a quick foreign policy win for Trump—by pushing concessions from Kosovo, including unconditionally dropping tariffs on Serbian goods and considering land swaps—and when Kurti blocked that win, the U.S. froze Kosovo’s development aid. In response, Kosovo’s Parliament voted to oust Kurti from office, despite heavy opposition from the people.

During his time as Special Envoy, Grenell also pushed for financial deals involving the former Yugoslov Ministry of Defense in Belgrade and using American investments. Grenell’s role in the Balkan development raised concerns over conflicts of interest between his public roles and private benefit. As veteran Washington foreign policy and arms control specialist Joe Cirincione stated: “There are many aspects to what Grenell is doing…one is grift, looking for business deals, particularly in Serbia, where Trump has long standing business interests and Trump seems to be helping him pursue this.”

On May 15th, 2024, Jared Kushner’s investment firm, Affinity Partners, which has received $2 billion in funding from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, among other foreign investors, obtained a 99-year lease from the Government of Serbia. And, according to reporting by the New York Times, Grenell is a partner in Kushner’s proposed $500 million project in Serbia that includes a luxury hotel, museum, and memorial complex. In a previous interview about Grenell’s initial proposal, he said that this could be the start of the “healing” process between the U.S. and Serbia, 25 years after the former bombed the ministry.

The Thursday after the election in 2020, Grenell held a contentious Trump campaign press conference in which he refused to identify himself, chided reporters for asking questions, promoted local efforts to overturn the election, and announced a federal lawsuit against “illegal” votes–claiming that dead people voted in Nevada. While it does not appear that he played a direct role in the January 6th insurrection, Grenell has recast the events of that day, saying: “January 6^th was a terrible day because it’s the day Big Tech and the media kicked President Trump off Twitter and silenced his voice” calling that “an attack on our democracy.” Grenel was also deployed to Nevada by Trump to lead “Stop the Steal” operations.

In the years since, Grenell has been “acting as a kind of shadow secretary of state,” inserting himself into far-right movements abroad, according to the Washington Post. For example, in August 2023, after the surprise defeat of the Guatemalan incumbent president, Alejandro Giammattei, Grenell visited the country in support of the outgoing conservative government that was trying to deny the election results, raided election offices, and threatened violence. While the Biden Administration was attempting to lay the groundwork for a peaceful transition of power, Grenell tried to undermine those efforts when he met with a hard-line group that sued to block the inauguration of incoming president, Bernardo Arévalo. Speaking about the victorious party and Biden State Department, Grenell asserted, “they are trying to intimidate conservatives in Guatemala. This is all wrapped into this kind of phony concern about democracy.” Grenell also had lunch with Giammattei, whom the State Department had barred from entering the United States due to “involvement in significant corruption.” 

Grenell is a senior advisor at the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), a Project 2025 Advisory Board member. ACLJ’s chief counsel is Jay Sekulow, who served as lead outside counsel for Donald Trump in his first impeachment trial. Grenell is also a senior fellow at Carnegie Mellon University’s Institute for Politics and Strategy.

Grenell has also been deployed to try to build support for Donald Trump’s 2024 Presidential Campaign in outreach to gay Americans, since he was the highest ranking openly gay person Trump appointed and he used his post as Ambassador to Germany in part to urge other countries to decriminalize gay activities, a position Trump apparently knew little about. During Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign, Grenell claimed that “President Trump is the most pro-gay president in American history. I can prove it.” The Washington Post fact checker rated this claim “Four Pinocchios,” and described the claim as “absurd.”