Richard Grenell

Richard Allen Grenell (born September 18, 1966) is an American political operative, diplomat, TV personality, and public relations consultant who served as Acting Director of National Intelligence in President Donald Trump’s Cabinet in 2020.

In 2001, Grenell was appointed by President George W. Bush as Director of Communications and Public Diplomacy for the United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York (formally, his title was Minister Counselor).

Serving in that role until 2008, Grenell advised four different U.S. Ambassadors.

During his tenure, Grenell promulgated U.S. official position and strategy on such issues as the War on Terror, global peacekeeping operations, nuclear proliferation, and the UN Oil for Food corruption scandal.

In 2009, Grenell founded Capitol Media Partners, an international strategic media and public affairs consultancy that claimed to have offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, and Washington, D.C. but never had physical locations in any of the four cities, according to the company's other co-founder.

He was also under contract as a Fox News contributor, commenting on foreign affairs and the media.

Grenell has written for The Wall Street Journal, CBS News, CNN, Politico, Huffington Post, The Washington Times, and Al Jazeera.

Grenell was a foreign policy spokesperson for Mitt Romney during his 2012 presidential campaign.

In 2012, CNN ranked Grenell as one of the top five Republican consultants in social media, and Time magazine named Grenell as one of the Top 10 Political Twitter Feeds of 2014.

Grenell was a foreign policy spokesperson for Republican candidate Mitt Romney during his 2012 presidential campaign.

Grenell is the first openly gay person to work as a spokesperson for a Republican presidential candidate.

Grenell was a signatory to a 2013 amicus curiae brief submitted to the Supreme Court in support of same-sex marriage during the Hollingsworth v. Perry case.

In 2016, Grenell's consulting firm accepted more than $100,000 from the Magyar Foundation of North America to provide public relations support for the Hungarian government of Viktor Orbán.

Grenell did not disclose this payment under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) prior to his work in the Trump administration.

During the 2016 Republican primaries, Grenell warned his Twitter followers about Donald Trump, described Trump as "unserious" and "dangerous".

“Trump is dangerous.

Wake up.

He’s reckless,” Grenell tweeted.

Grenell deleted all of his negative tweets about Trump after Trump became the Republican nominee.

Grenell then began praising Trump repeatedly on Fox News and on Twitter.

In September 2017, President Donald Trump nominated Grenell as the U.S. Ambassador to Germany.

In September 2017, President Donald Trump nominated Grenell to become the United States Ambassador to Germany.

A member of the Republican Party, Grenell served as the United States Ambassador to Germany from 2018 to 2020 and as the Special Presidential Envoy for Serbia and Kosovo Peace Negotiations from 2019 to 2021.

Grenell was a U.S. State Department spokesperson to the United Nations during the George W. Bush administration.

Following his State Department tenure, he formed Capitol Media Partners, a political consultancy; he also was a Fox News contributor.

On April 26, 2018, he was confirmed by the United States Senate by a vote of 56 to 42.

Grenell presented his credentials to the President of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, on May 8, 2018.

His tenure in Germany was controversial and he was described as politically and diplomatically isolated due to his association with the far right and a perceived lack of professionalism.

Days after Grenell's appointment as DNI, CNN reported that his personal website had—until 2018—touted consulting work he had done for clients in Iran, China, Kazakhstan, and other countries.

After a significant delay, the United States Senate confirmed Grenell 56–42 on April 26, 2018.

Grenell was sworn in by Vice President Mike Pence on May 3, 2018, making him the highest-ranking openly gay U.S. Ambassador.

Grenell was also under consideration for the posts of U.S. Ambassador to NATO and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, the latter position being filled by Ambassador Kelly Craft.

Grenell presented his credentials to the President of Germany on May 8, 2018.

Within hours of taking office, Grenell offended German diplomats and business leaders when he tweeted that "German companies doing business in Iran should wind down operations immediately".

The tweet was widely perceived as a threat, with the Foreign Minister of Luxembourg, Jean Asselborn, commenting that "This man was accredited as ambassador only yesterday. To give German businesses such orders (…) that is just not how you can treat your allies".

Grenell was named as Acting Director of National Intelligence by President Trump in February 2020, making him the first openly gay person to serve in the Cabinet of the United States; he relinquished the role in May 2020.

Grenell expressed interest in running in the 2021 California gubernatorial recall election but on July 15, 2021 – the day before the filing deadline – he appeared on The Sean Hannity Show to announce that he would not run as a replacement candidate.

Grenell graduated with a bachelor's degree in Government and Public Administration from Evangel University in Springfield, Missouri.

He received a master's degree in Public Administration from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Prior to his service at the State Department, Grenell was a political adviser to a number of Republicans, including George Pataki and Dave Camp.