With the war in Ukraine still raging and the Middle East constantly on the brink of implosion, Donald Trump will need a diplomat made of steel to be his Secretary of State.
You may have at your disposal an envoy who describes himself as a “son of a bitch.”
Ric Grenell has been a Trump loyalist for years and has fought many foreign policy battles at his side.
The 58-year-old was its ambassador to Germany and has already been promoted as CIA chief or national security adviser.
Now the Michigan native could be the first openly gay Secretary of State in Trump’s second term.
In recent months he has been on the front lines of the campaign, helping the now president-elect win over Arab-American Muslim voters furious over how the Biden-Harris administration has handled the war in Gaza.
It’s the kind of territory that helps his credentials when Trump is considering who he wants to represent America on the world stage, especially when so many countries have spurned him.
The 47th president is now at Mar-a-Lago building the team around him for his second term in the White House. His first major step was to appoint Susie Wiles as his chief of staff.
Ric Grenell, who was born in Michigan and was Trump’s ambassador to Germany, is being nominated for top security positions.
Trump praised his “guts” as he concluded his tumultuous term in Berlin, where relations were strained when relations were strained.
He has continued as part of Trump’s inner circle.
Trump referred to Grenell as his “envoy” during his time away from the White House, when he appeared abroad and made contacts with foreign officials.
He with right-wing officials in Guatemala to Eastern Europe. Washington Post saying acted as a kind of “secretary of state” for Trump, noting in a headline that “neither of them are in office.”
“His tour around the world has sparked deep concern among national security officials and career diplomats, who warn that he emboldens bad actors and endangers American interests in service of Trump’s personal agenda,” the newspaper wrote.
He said he had proposed a meeting in New York in 2023 between Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
There is often a divide between national security types and policy makers.
Grenell has a foot in both camps.
He campaigned for Trump in battleground states and took the stage in Grand Rapids at Trump’s final rally.
Trump has praised him as “a fighter” during rally appearances, a great complement to Trump in a race where his “fight, fight, fight” mantra became a dominant theme.
“It’s good to be home,” he told the crowd. ‘I’m a Michigander. On television I play a Californian, but I was born in Muskegon.
“As my mother will tell you, we Westerners always vote well” (referring to the Republican parts of the state), but if it weren’t for Detroit, I wouldn’t be winning this election.
A Republican official said he helped lead negotiations with Arab and Muslim officials in the state for Trump.
Trump made a play to appeal to traditionally Democratic voters amid fury over Israel’s war in Gaza.
I needed to run the state.
Trump has praised Grenell’s tenacity and ‘guts’ after he ended his tenure as US ambassador to Germany.
Grenell is stumped by Trump in battleground states
He has a provocative account on X.
He has run afoul of liberals but could overcome a Republican-controlled Senate.
He helped Trump reach Arab American and Muslim voters, who helped deliver Michigan to him.
Grenell has a cheeky Twitter account where he takes on his rivals in the media. At 2 a.m. after Election Day, about half an hour after posting about Trump’s victory, he wrote: “Journalists need to ask themselves what they missed about Americans.” Then, a few minutes later, he wrote: “Kamala not conceding is undermining our democracy.”
When the race was over, he posted his thanks to voters in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, along with photos of himself meeting people on the campaign trail. ‘Your stories have changed me. His patriotism is inspiring,’ he wrote.
When the ‘End Wokeness’ account posted the final results in Dearborn, Michigan, where Trump’s efforts paid off, he reposted the response and wrote ‘Yalla,’ which is Arabic for ‘let’s go.’
A May New York Times profile detailed his role in the ‘war room’ in Nevada during Trump’s effort to overturn the election, where Grenell set up shop at the Venetian along with key staff.
The newspaper cited unnamed agents telling them to “throw spaghetti at the wall” to distract the media from calling the state for Trump.
He has spoken about the role of the secretary of state, valuing the toughness in the role.
“If you want to avoid war, you better have a son of a bitch as secretary of state,” he said in an episode of the current affairs podcast “Self Centered.”
He said the nation needs a tough diplomat “who will go to these tables and say, ‘Guys, if we don’t solve this here, if we don’t stand for peace and we don’t find a tough way, I have to take this file, go back to the United States and transfer it.’ to the Secretary of Defense, who does not negotiate.
That’s the same kind of rhetoric Trump himself deploys: speaking regularly during the election campaign about giving a warning to ‘Abdul’, a senior Taliban official. As Trump sells it, he wanted the Taliban to stop shooting at US troops and sent the official a photo of his house, an implicit threat.
Grenell has some detractors.
When a journalist posted that he was being considered for the top job at Langley, former FBI agent Asha Rangappa posted: “God help us.”
Biden’s former domestic policy adviser, Susan Rice, called him “one of the most unpleasant and dishonest people I have ever met.”
When Trump first nominated, Senate Democrats delayed his nomination for months, in part because of their Twitter battles. The deleted tweets that got him in trouble included saying that Michelle Obama was “sweating on the East Room carpet” with her workout regimen.
“The conversations I’ve had are like, hey, we’re looking for people who are loyal to the president and his agenda,” said a former Trump administration official who said Grenell was in the mix.
Grenell has teamed up with Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, on a hotel project in the Balkans.
In 2013 he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. His doctors successfully treated the disease with chemotherapy.
He has a weakness.
He takes his dog on trips, even when he’s on mission. While stationed in Berlin, Grenell aware a picture of his dog wearing sunglasses in front of an American flag.
“Happy 4th of July from Ambassador Grenell and his beautiful, patriotic dog, Lola,” she wrote.
