Donald Trump is considering Richard Grenell, the gay U.S. ambassador to Germany to replace Nikki Haley as UN Ambassador. Grenell’s role in Germany caused controversy after he breached protocol and gave an interview to Breitbart saying he wanted to “empower other conservatives throughout Europe.”
Politico reports: ‘Trump initially seemed to rule out choosing Grenell for the job, telling reporters he’d prefer to keep him in Germany. “Ric is doing so well that I wouldn’t want to move him,” the president told reporters last week shortly after Haley announced her plans to step down by the end of the year. But in recent days, several of Trump’s closest advisers have put forward Grenell’s name again, pointing to his seven-year stint as the United States’ U.N. spokesman.’
Grenell has plenty of other controversy in his past, as the Washington Blade noted: “Grenell waited nearly eight months for confirmation in the Senate. Grenell faced opposition over mean tweets about the appearance of women, including Hillary Clinton, Rachel Maddow and Callista Gingrich, and tweets downplaying the impact of Russia meddling in the 2016 election.”
In 2017 it was thought that Trump would pick Grenell as ambassador to NATO.
The White House on Grenell’s background:
“Mr. Grenell, a foreign policy writer and commentator, founded the international consulting firm Capitol Media Partners in 2010. For nearly two decades, he has served as the primary communications adviser for public officials at the local, state, Federal, and international levels, as well as for a Fortune 200 ranked company. Mr. Grenell is the longest serving United States spokesman at the United Nations (2001-2008) having served four United States Ambassadors. He earned a B.A. from Evangel University and an MPA from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.”
Grenell served as an advisor to Mitt Romney during his 2012 campaign for president but was forced to resign two weeks into the job after a campaign by social conservatives over his sexual orientation forced him out.
The American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer was among those leading the charge.
Argued Fischer in a CNN appearance: “Well, the point here is that personnel is policy. Everybody in D.C. says that. Personnel is policy. When Governor Romney picks somebody who is an activist homosexual and puts him in a prominent position, he’s sending a shout out, it seems to me, to the homosexual lobby.
