After an anti-corruption crusader unexpectedly won last year\u2019s presidential election in Guatemala, democracy teetered on the edge in the Central American country. Amid law enforcement raids on election offices and threats of violence, the Biden administration worked feverishly to lay the groundwork for a peaceful transfer of power.<\/p>\n
But not Richard Grenell, a former diplomat and intelligence official in Donald Trump\u2019s administration, who arrived in Guatemala in January, days before the new president was to be sworn in \u2014 and threw his support behind a right-wing campaign to undermine the election.<\/p>\n
Grenell met with a hard-line group that sued to block the inauguration, which thanked him for his \u201cvisit and trust.\u201d He defended Guatemalan officials who had seized ballot boxes in an effort to overturn a vote declared \u201cfree and fair\u201d by the United States and international observers, and he attacked the U.S. State Department\u2019s sanctions against hundreds of anti-democratic actors.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are trying to intimidate conservatives in Guatemala,\u201d Grenell said in a television interview. \u201cThis is all wrapped into this kind of phony concern about democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grenell\u2019s intervention highlights the extraordinary role he has carved out in the three years since Trump left the White House. From Central America to Eastern Europe and beyond, Grenell has been acting as a kind of shadow secretary of state, meeting with far-right leaders and movements, pledging Trump\u2019s support, and at times, working against the current administration\u2019s policies.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unusual for a former diplomatic official to continue meeting with foreign leaders and promoting the agenda of a presidential candidate on the world stage. Grenell\u2019s globe-trotting has sparked deep concern among career national security officials and diplomats, who warn that he emboldens bad actors and jeopardizes U.S. interests in service of Trump\u2019s personal agenda. In the process, Grenell is openly charting a foreign policy road map for a Republican presidential nominee who has found common cause with authoritarian leaders and threatened to blow up partnerships with democratic allies.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Trump and Grenell would upend American leadership of the free world, from Truman on the left to Reagan on the right, and replace it with something much darker,\u201d said Daniel Fried, who spent four decades in top State Department posts, including as an assistant secretary of state and a director of the National Security Council. \u201cIt\u2019s transactional. Democratic values are irrelevant, and it\u2019s isolationist.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grenell declined to talk on the record about his overseas work.<\/p>\n
His profile is rising in Trump\u2019s MAGA movement, which hails him as a champion of the \u201cAmerica First\u201d platform. Trump and his supporters view a second term as an opportunity to elevate his most loyal backers, who potentially would test traditional guardrails against abuse of executive power.<\/p>\n
The former president\u2019s son, Donald Trump Jr., in an online chat with Grenell last month, touted his record as ambassador to Germany and called him a \u201ctop contender for Secretary of State.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYour name comes up a lot in some very high levels. You\u2019re in there with the base,\u201d Trump Jr. said, adding that Grenell was \u201cprobably the only ambassador who spoke truth to power.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grenell calls himself a diplomat but acts as a rapid-response, war room director, perpetually exalting Trump and trolling his political foes on social media and in interviews.<\/p>\n
\u201cGrenell fulfills the top priority that Trump is looking for in his second term, which is absolute loyalty,\u201d said Trump\u2019s former national security adviser, John Bolton, who has called Trump \u201cunfit\u201d to be president and warned about a potential administration of enablers. \u201cWhat a president\u2019s advisers owe him is their opinions on what\u2019s right, their sound judgment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grenell is in regular contact with the former president and his family, though it\u2019s unclear when or if he\u2019s acting on Trump\u2019s directions. Earlier this year, Grenell attended a small, private funeral for Trump\u2019s mother-in-law, according to other guests. Social media posts show several visits to Trump\u2019s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla., and his golf club in Bedminster, N.J. In an unusual statement by an ex-president, Trump gave one of Grenell\u2019s recent foreign trips his blessing, calling him \u201cMy Envoy.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Guatemala, Grenell claimed on social media that he met with more than 45 political and business leaders during a days-long trip. In the Balkans, where he worked as an envoy under Trump, he\u2019s continued to talk to heads of state who are separately engaging with the Biden administration. Last year, as Turkey threatened Sweden\u2019s pathway to joining NATO, Grenell tried to broker a meeting between Trump and the Turkish president, according to two people close to the former president who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.<\/p>\n
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung declined to comment on whether the former president endorses Grenell\u2019s foreign activities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere has been no discussion of who will serve in a second Trump Administration.\u201d Cheung said. \u201cPresident Trump will choose the best people for his Cabinet to undo all the damage Crooked Joe Biden has done to our country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked if he\u2019s seeking a Cabinet-level position, Grenell has told reporters that he\u2019s busy campaigning for Trump\u2019s reelection.<\/p>\n
Federal law requires many people paid to advocate on behalf of foreign interests to register with the Justice Department and disclose their activities. When Grenell joined the Trump administration, amid revelations that his former public relations firm was paid by a nonprofit funded by the Hungarian government, his lawyer at the time said he did not need to register as a lobbyist. Bloomberg and the New York Times recently reported that Grenell and Trump\u2019s son-in-law and former adviser Jared Kushner are proposing major real estate developments in the Balkans that could pose conflicts of interest if either of them served in another Trump administration.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is private sector investment. This is not political,\u201d Grenell said in a recent interview with an Albanian television station. \u201cJared and I are both not in government and we are on the outside.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kushner did not respond to The Post\u2019s requests for comment.<\/p>\n
The arc of Grenell\u2019s political career tracks Trump\u2019s takeover of the Republican Party.<\/p>\n
A native of Grand Rapids, Mich., who obtained a master\u2019s degree in public administration from the Harvard Kennedy School, he served as a spokesman for various Republican politicians and then for the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations for several years. During a brief stint as a spokesman for Mitt Romney\u2019s 2012 presidential campaign, Grenell deleted numerous snarky and sexist social media posts and apologized. (He resigned after some religious conservatives rejected him for being openly gay.)<\/p>\n
He would not issue a public apology like that again. The following year, he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin\u2019s lymphoma. \u201cHe always says that after cancer, he\u2019s fearless and lives life without regrets,\u201d said former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is close with Grenell.<\/p>\n
Grenell\u2019s aptitude for tormenting liberals and journalists, viewed as a liability by the Romney campaign, became an asset after Trump\u2019s election. The president who relished weaponizing social media against his political foes named Grenell, a Fox News contributor, as ambassador to Germany.<\/p>\n
Grenell immediately offended his new host. Shortly after Trump pulled the United States out of the nuclear deal with Iran in May 2018, Grenell demanded that German businesses cut ties with Iran even though the country remained part of the agreement. One month later, some German politicians called for Grenell\u2019s ouster after he said he wanted to \u201cempower other conservatives throughout Europe\u201d and praised an Austrian political leader allied with the far right. He also pushed a major drawdown of U.S. troops in Germany, which had failed to meet NATO targets for defense spending.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe really animated the America-first ideology through diplomacy, and that was equal parts confidence, savvy, creativity and online snark,\u201d said U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), a Trump ally and friend of Grenell\u2019s. \u201cIt was effective. He got Germany to be less of an economic welfare case for the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n
Seasoned diplomats criticized Grenell for upending relations with a foreign partner, and later, for boosting Russian interests in the Balkans. While Grenell was still posted to Berlin in 2019, Trump tapped him to mediate between Kosovo and Serbia. Kosovo was recognized as a sovereign state by the U.S. but not by Serbia, long aligned with Russia. Grenell helped broker an agreement normalizing economic cooperation in the region. Kosovo\u2019s prime minister accused Grenell of helping sink his left-wing administration and favoring Serbia\u2019s president, but both countries subsequently honored Grenell for his work.<\/p>\n
In early 2020, Trump appointed Grenell acting Director of National Intelligence, a sensitive post typically held by nonpartisan national security experts who have led intelligence agencies or served in the military. During three disruptive months as a Cabinet member, Grenell purged career intelligence professionals serving in what he characterized as a bloated counterterrorism bureaucracy, and he declassified documents sought by Republicans to argue against the investigation into Russian interference.<\/p>\n
As Grenell stepped down in May 2020, Trump called him \u201cthe all-time great acting ever, at any position.\u201d<\/p>\n
He campaigned for the president\u2019s reelection, and days after the vote, he and other Trump surrogates alleged at a news conference that \u201cillegal votes\u201d had tainted the results in Nevada. The state was soon called for Biden, but Grenell has continued to promote the false claim that voting fraud fueled his 2020 victory.<\/p>\n
Grenell\u2019s allegiance to Trump has proved fruitful during the Biden years.<\/p>\n
In late 2021, he became a high-ranking executive at Newsmax, which has grown more popular with a right-wing audience that views Fox News as insufficiently pro-Trump. The Republican National Committee paid Grenell $135,000 for consulting that year, records show. Grenell received nearly $400,000 from two pro-Trump, tax-exempt organizations in 2022, the latest year tax filings were available.<\/p>\n
Last year, Grenell was elected to the board overseeing the Conservative Political Action Conference, a standard-bearer for the conservative movement that has become an unofficial arm of the Trump campaign.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou probably all have heard the buzz that Ric Grenell is probably likely to have an extremely important role in a Trump administration,\u201d K.T. McFarland, a CPAC board member who served briefly as Trump\u2019s deputy national security adviser said at its February conference. Another speaker drew applause when he started a question to Grenell this way: \u201cLet\u2019s say that you\u2019re the next secretary of state \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
After Trump\u2019s defeat, Grenell was no longer a diplomat \u2014 but a private citizen who continued traveling and meeting with world leaders.<\/p>\n
Grenell returned to the Balkans in November 2021 \u2014 days after dining with Trump at Mar-a-Lago \u2014 amid renewed tensions between Serbia and Kosovo. Trump released a statement calling Grenell \u201cMy Envoy\u201d and touting their 2020 economic deal in the region as \u201chistoric.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Grenell criticized U.S. policy during his trip, Kosovo\u2019s president met with senior Biden administration officials in Washington that same month.<\/p>\n
On his repeated trips to Kosovo and Serbia, he has used his stature in the region to boost Trump\u2019s allies, to denigrate Biden\u2019s efforts at negotiating a new peace deal, and to push for private developments.<\/p>\n
In Serbia, Grenell is often greeted as a quasi-official, reflecting a perception that he speaks for Trump and could play an important role in a future administration. \u201cHe is undoubtedly Serbia\u2019s friend,\u201d Serbia\u2019s ambassador to the U.S., Marko Duric, said in an interview last year. \u201cHe was while he had the official post, and has remained so today. Everyone in Serbia appreciates that very much.\u201d<\/p>\n
At times, that affinity has brought him close to officials tied to the Kremlin. Grenell partied at a cabaret club in Belgrade in 2021 with Serbia\u2019s finance minister, a close ally of President Aleksandar Vu\u010di\u0107, who has faced scrutiny in the U.S. for his authoritarian leanings and connections to Russia.<\/p>\n
Grenell\u2019s deep Balkan ties helped pave the way for the estimated $1 billion in real estate projects he is now pursuing with Kushner\u2019s investment firm, Affinity Partners, including a luxury hotel and offices in downtown Belgrade and a resort on an island off the Albanian coast. \u201cI was ecstatic to be able to get Jared and Affinity to look at the project and invest in it,\u201d Grenell said in the recent Albanian television interview, adding that he expected the deal to attract \u201ca flood of investment.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the fall of 2023, Sweden\u2019s drive to enter NATO was being held up by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose erosion of civil liberties and ties to Russian president Vladimir Putin had badly strained his ties to the United States. In Congress, some key lawmakers were demanding a commitment from Turkey before ratifying the sale of $20 billion in U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets.<\/p>\n
Amid those tense negotiations, Grenell, a fierce critic of NATO and the Biden administration\u2019s foreign policies \u2014 made a startling offer: A meeting between Trump and Erdogan, who was coming to New York City for the United Nations General Assembly, according to the two people close to the former president.<\/p>\n
Grenell proposed a Sept. 12 meeting, according to one of the people familiar with the request. Grenell had long opposed Sweden joining NATO, skeptical that it would meet the alliance\u2019s benchmark of spending at least 2% of gross national product on defense.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not clear how Grenell proposed to broker the meeting, or who he was representing.<\/p>\n
But the idea alarmed the Trump confidants, who were concerned about the location and security risks of Erdogan meeting with the former president.Ultimately, Trump decided against it, according to the two people.<\/p>\n
Halil Mutlu, Erdogan\u2019s cousin and the head of his political party\u2019s operations in the United States, said that he was not aware of the proposed meeting and that Grenell was not working for his organization.<\/p>\n
A review of Grenell\u2019s public statements shows that he has pulled back on his criticism of Erdogan. In 2016, Grenell complained that Erdogan was \u201ctoo close to Islamists,\u201d and as recently as June 2022 he said the Turkish president \u201cviews dissenting voices as terrorists.\u201d But in a May 2023 podcast, Grenell argued that Western media unfairly demonized Erdogan in a complicated political climate. \u201cHe\u2019s standing up for Turkey,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In January, the Turkish Parliament voted in favor of Sweden joining NATO. Earlier this month, when Biden invited the Swedish prime minister to the State of the Union address to celebrate NATO\u2019s expansion, Grenell mocked the foreign leader for applauding the American president.<\/p>\n
In August, following a tumultuous presidential campaign in Guatemala, Bernardo Ar\u00e9valo, a left-leaning academic, defeated Sandra Torres, a former first lady backed by the right-wing ruling class. U.S. officials then watched in alarm at what Ar\u00e9valo described as a \u201cslow-motion coup,\u201d driven by business and political elites opposed to his anti-graft platform. Guatemalan authorities seized ballot boxes on flimsy claims of voter fraud, tried to dissolve Ar\u00e9velo\u2019s party, and opened a criminal investigation into him.<\/p>\n
Both Democrats and Republicans in Congress recognized his victory as the European Union warned of \u201ca grave threat to democracy\u201d in a country with a long history of corruption. The Biden administration responded aggressively, dispatching members of Congress and top diplomats. In December, the State Department restricted the visas of nearly 300 individuals in Guatemala, including 100 lawmakers, it said were trying to undermine the rule of law.<\/p>\n
That same day, Grenell blasted the moves as politically motivated and circulated unproven claims of election fraud made by the nation\u2019s attorney general, who was previously restricted from visiting the United States after the State Department cited her for corruption and obstructing investigations.<\/p>\n
Grenell was in Guatemala City by Jan. 11, four days before Ar\u00e9valo\u2019s inauguration. He met that evening with leaders of a right-wing group, Liga Pro Patria, which had recently tried to block Ar\u00e9valo\u2019s inauguration in court. Among the activists in a photo of the meeting posted online was Steve Hecht, a political website editor in the group, who said in an interview that Liga Pro Patria invited Grenell to Guatemala to seek the backing of a powerful messenger allied with a former U.S. president.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople couldn\u2019t believe it,\u201d Hecht said. \u201cHere\u2019s a former, high-level U.S. official who, for whatever reason, came here, and we really appreciated him speaking out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fernando Linares Beltranena, a former lawmaker who also attended the meeting, said he agreed with the group that the State Department had meddled in the Guatemala election. \u201cHe told us that when he gets to the State Department, if Donald Trump arrives, then heads will roll,\u201d Linares Beltranena said.<\/p>\n
The next day, Grenell ate lunch with outgoing president Alejandro Giammattei, whom he called \u201ca great U.S. ally\u201d on Instagram four days before the State Department restricted the former head of state from the U.S. due to \u201cinvolvement in significant corruption.\u201d (Giammattei has denied any wrongdoing.) The president\u2019s press agency released a photo of his handshake with \u201cmy friend, diplomat Richard Grenell.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are running around labeling everyone who disagrees with them as \u201cundermining Democracy,\u201d Grenell said on X, in several posts bashing the State Department\u2019s efforts to safeguard Ar\u00e9valo\u2019s presidency.<\/p>\n
To Guatemalans on the far right questioning the legitimacy of Ar\u00e9valo\u2019s election, Grenell\u2019s visit was a sign that help was on the way. To former and current U.S. officials concerned about the peaceful transfer of power, it was a red flag.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople in Guatemala were asking me, \u2018Who is this guy?\u2019\u201d said Francisco Villagr\u00e1n de Le\u00f3n, a career diplomat recently appointed Ar\u00e9valo\u2019s envoy to the U.S. \u201cWhy is he meeting with these known election deniers?\u201d<\/p>\n
Grenell briefed the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala about his concerns. But he continued publicly attacking the Biden administration\u2019s support for Ar\u00e9valo, even as political chaos threatened the inauguration.<\/p>\n
The swearing-in was delayed by nine hours amid shouting matches in Congress over new leadership, street protests and a temporary suspension of Ar\u00e9valo\u2019s party. Ar\u00e9valo was finally sworn in after midnight.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt took me back to Jan. 6,\u201d said U.S. Rep. Norma J. Torres (D-Calif.), a member of the U.S. delegation to the inauguration who was holed up for hours during the unrest. \u201cIt was very, very tense.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vice President Harris hosted Ar\u00e9valo at the White House on Monday.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Grenell is providing cover to Ar\u00e9valo\u2019s political opponents. Mario Duarte, a former Guatemalan intelligence official who has circulated many of Grenell\u2019s social media posts, met with him in Guatemala and again at CPAC last month.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Guatemala he is seen as an important part of team Trump,\u201d Duarte said. \u201cI hope someone like Ric Grenell is in a position of influence of power when Trump wins \u2014 God willing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mary Beth Sheridan in Mexico City and Claudia M\u00e9ndez Arriaza in Guatemala contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
After an anti-corruption crusader unexpectedly won last year\u2019s presidential election in Guatemala, democracy teetered on the edge in the Central American country. Amid law enforcement raids on election offices and threats of violence, the Biden administration worked feverishly to lay the groundwork for a peaceful transfer of power. But not Richard Grenell, a former diplomat […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2508,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}