Trump appoints longtime foreign policy adviser Richard Grenell to serve as special missions envoy

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump announced Saturday that he's picked longtime foreign policy adviser Richard Grenell to serve as an envoy for special missions, tasking him with helping the incoming administration deal with some of the toughest foreign policy challenges.

Grenell served as ambassador to Germany during Trump’s first administration, special presidential envoy for Serbia and Kosovo peace negotiations, and did a stint as acting director of national intelligence.

He was also a contender to serve as secretary of state, but Trump opted to nominate Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.

“Ric will work in some of the hottest spots around the World, including Venezuela and North Korea,” Trump said in a posting on his social media platform, Truth Social, announcing the appointment.

Grenell during Trump's first term developed a reputation for employing a sometimes contentious approach to diplomacy that rankled allies and the foreign policy establishment in Washington. But his style was appreciated by the president-elect who sees value in blunt talk with allies.

Grenell remained close to Trump after he left office in 2021, serving at times as a key adviser on foreign policy.

He was in the room when Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in September. Grenell has advocated for a peace deal that would preserve Ukraine’s territory while still allowing for “autonomous regions” where Russia could remain in control.

He’s also advised against expanding NATO to include Ukraine, saying — as Trump has — that the alliance shouldn’t grow until current members meet the alliance's defense spending targets. Members of the transatlantic alliance have committed for years to spending 2% of their GDP on defense, but several countries still fall short of the target.

He was an early supporter of Trump’s 2024 campaign and held multiple events for the Republican nominee focused on economics and national security.

Speaking at the Republican National Convention, Grenell echoed Trump’s mantra that “it’s time to put America first” on the global stage and argued that China and Russia saw President Joe Biden's administration as weak.

Trump raised concerns among some allies during the 2024 campaign when he said he would not defend NATO members that failed to meet defense spending targets, and warned he would “encourage” Russia “to do whatever the hell they want” to alliance countries that he considered “delinquent.”

Grenell has downplayed Trump's criticisms of NATO and said the only talk of leaving the alliance altogether “was really from the media.”

“What we’re saying is, don’t come to the wedding without a gift,” Grenell said.

Grenell was part of the Trump campaign's outreach to Arab American voters in Michigan, where the president-elect made gains with a traditionally Democratic constituency despite his history of banning immigration from several majority-Muslim countries. Grenell orchestrated pro-Trump events with Arab American voters, including a May meeting held in Troy, Michigan.

A U.S. spokesman at the United Nations during the George W. Bush administration, Grenell, like many other Republicans, has his own history of criticizing Trump before embracing him.

Once an adviser to GOP moderates like 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney and a supporter of gay marriage, Grenell, who is openly gay, deleted social media posts blasting Trump as “reckless” and “dangerous” once the former reality TV star became the Republican nominee in 2016.

Trump also announced Saturday that he’s appointing Devin Nunes, the chief executive officer of the president-elect's Truth Social platform, to head a presidential advisory board that will keep tabs on the U.S. intelligence community.

Nunes will continue leading Trump Media & Technology Group. Trump is the company’s largest shareholder.

The former California lawmaker chaired the House Intelligence Committee and was one of Trump’s closest allies in Congress during the president-elect's first term.

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Kinnard reported from Columbia, South Carolina.