Trump loyalist Richard Grenell named presidential envoy for special missions
WASHINGTON ? President-elect Donald Trump has picked Richard Grenell, a close advisor on foreign policy and intelligence issues, to be his presidential envoy for special missions.
"Ric will work in some of the hottest spots around the World, including Venezuela and North Korea," Trump announced in a post on his Truth Social media platform.
Considered one of Trump’s staunchest loyalists, Grenell served in the first Trump administration as U.S. ambassador to Germany, where he sparked controversy for his contentious personality and management style. The 58-year-old longtime GOP political operative was one of Trump's most outspoken supporters during his first term inside the U.S. diplomatic corps.
Grenell then served for a short period as Trump’s acting Director of National Intelligence in 2020, a key post overseeing the nation’s 18 intelligence agencies including the CIA and National Security Agency. His tenure caused strife given his lack of intelligence experience.
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Previously, Grenell served Trump as Presidential Envoy for Kosovo-Serbia negotiations, Trump said Saturday. And before that he had spent eight years "inside the United Nations Security Council, working with North Korea, and developments in numerous other Countries," Trump said in his post.
"Rick has represented our Country exceedingly well and I look forward to working with him," Trump posted on Twitter in February 2020 in announcing Grenell’s selection to the intelligence job.
More recently, Grenell was a featured speaker at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in July, where he discussed Trump's strengths on national security issues and what he said were President Joe Biden’s failures.
In September, Grenell sat in on Trump’s private meeting with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Trump Tower in Manhattan, Reuters reported. He has publicly advocated for ending Russia’s war with Ukraine on terms considered unacceptable by the Kyiv government.
Reports of failed diplomatic effort
In September 2020, Grenell quietly embarked on a back-channel pre-election mission to persuade Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to relinquish power in favor of a pro-Trump opposition leader.
Grenell met near Mexico City on Sept. 17 with former Venezuelan vice president Jorge Rodríguez, a close ally of Maduro, according to a report in Bloomberg News that was later corroborated by other media.
Grenell was apparently trying to orchestrate a political victory for Trump in the final stretch of the election that he ultimately lost to Democratic rival Joe Biden, but there is no evidence that the effort went anywhere. Maduro is “a socialist strongman who has maintained power despite international opposition” the New York Times reported at the time.
The previous year, the Times reported, Trump had demanded that Maduro resign, and his administration had formally recognized Juan Guaidó, the leader of Parliament, who heads the country’s popular opposition movement, as Venezuela’s president.
Maduro responded by angrily cutting diplomatic ties with the United States and ordering its diplomats out of the country.
(This story has been updated to add new information and to correct a misspelling/typo.)
Josh Meyer is USA Today's Domestic Security Correspondent. Email him at [email protected] and follow him at @JoshMeyerDC on X.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump loyalist Richard Grenell named envoy for special missions