RICHARD ALLEN GRENELL, born on this date, is an American political troll, diplomat, and public relations consultant. He served as Acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI) under President Donald Trump in 2020, becoming the first out homosexual holder of a cabinet level position in the history of the United States. 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’s selection as a foreign policy adviser to the 2012 Romney campaign stirred up two related controversies. One was due to his “snarky” tweets about various public women, and the other because he is openly gay.
Democratic national security leader Susan E. Rice has described Grenell as “one of the most nasty, dishonest people I’ve ever encountered.” Veteran journalist Irwin Arieff, who worked more than 20 years at Reuters, including seven years covering the United Nations, described Grenell as “the most dishonest and deceptive press person I ever worked with.”
A February 2020, White House press release announcing the appointment of Grenell to the post of acting director of National Intelligence, stated that Grenell had “years of experience working with our Intelligence Community in a number of additional positions”; however, this assertion was disputed by others who asserted Grenell had little background in intelligence matters. Republican Senator Susan Collins, one of four co-authors of the legislation creating the ODNI in 2004, said: “I care deeply about that position and believe the person needs experience in the intelligence community, which regrettably Ambassador Grenell does not have.”
On the day his tenure began, it was reported that Grenell had not disclosed payments for advocacy work on behalf of Moldovan politician Vladimir Plahotniuc, who has been accused of stealing USD 1 billion from the Moldavan banking system between 2012 and 2014.
In March 2020, Grenell declined to attend a congressional hearing on election security, “citing apprehension about his preparedness to address sensitive subjects that tend to upset the president.”
Grenell claimed in August 2020 that “President Trump is the most pro-gay president in American history. I can prove it.” The Washington Post fact-checker gave his claim “Four Pinocchios” and described the claim as absurd. The fact-checker noted, “the only items Grenell can cite in support of his supposedly pro-gay record concern Grenell’s own temporary appointment and a policy announced by Grenell that Trump apparently knew little about… That’s pretty thin gruel on which to claim Trump is the most pro-gay president in history, especially when Trump has worked actively to undermine protections for the LGBT community that were enacted under Obama.”
In November 2020, Grenell appeared as a speaker of the Trump campaign press conference in Las Vegas, pushing the local effort to overturn the presidential election Donald Trump had lost and announcing a federal lawsuit against “illegal” votes. He made allegations of fraud, claiming that non-residents and people who were long dead had voted in Nevada and accusing the state of covering up these incidents. When asked by journalists to identify himself and present evidence backing up any of his claims, Grenell refused to answer the questions and told reporters: “You’re here to take in information”. All the post-election lawsuits related to Nevada were later either dropped or dismissed.
A few days later, LGBTQ Nation criticized Grenell after he had been tricked on Veterans Day 2020, into tweeting well wishes to William Calley, the former U.S. Army officer convicted for the premeditated killings of 22 unarmed civilians in the 1968 Mỹ Lai massacre during the Vietnam War. The Nation journalist Ken Klippenstein had tweeted a picture of Calley to Grenell, pretending it was a photo of his own grandfather and requesting public recognition of the elderly veteran. In response, Grenell tweeted, “Thank you for your service, Bill Calley! #VeteransDay”. Upon learning that he had been the victim of a joke, Grenell tweeted, “Duped. Trying to be helpful to people who reach out on Veteran’s Day. It’s a shame people would do this on a day like today. DC is a sick city.”
Grenell sought to build support for Trump’s 2024 Presidential Campaign among some Libertarian activists and donors. After Trump’s speech at the 2024 Libertarian National Convention, which received a mixed response from the audience, Grenell went on social media to defend Trump from critics, writing “Donald Trump doesn’t fear dissenting views. Only your team does.”