President Trump has named U.S. Ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell to be the Acting Director of National Intelligence. Grenell will replace Acting Director Joseph Maguire, who replaced Dan Coates. Coates was confirmed to the post which is why he was the actual DNI, rather than acting. Grenell was confirmed to his German post, and can be Acting DNI for 210 days before needing Senate confirmation. Given the current, outright hatred for the President and the coming election, that is not going to happen. The next Presidential election is 258 days away.

Richard Grenell is 53 years old, has a most impressive biography, which you can read here, and he is married to Matt Lashey, a man. Yes, he is gay. Get over it.

Naturally, President Trump tweeted the announcement. No word on how Attorney General Bill Barr felt about the tweet.

I am pleased to announce that our highly respected Ambassador to Germany, @RichardGrenell, will become the Acting Director of National Intelligence. Rick has represented our Country exceedingly well and I look forward to working with him. I would like to thank Joe Maguire….

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 20, 2020

To say that the Trump Derangement Syndrome afflicted Left is unhappy would be, well, you know:

“Grenell is a vain, narcissistic person who dishes out aggressively, but can barely handle criticism. His brash demeanor hides a deep insecurity. Grenell knows little about Germany and Europe, and that his knowledge of the subject matter is superficial.” https://t.co/8GW4SGSU5j

— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) February 20, 2020

Well, Joe, you would know about vanity, narcissism, deep insecurity and superficiality wouldn’t you? Of course, you could be just a wee bit jealous of Richard Grenell. Grenell is a player on the world stage while your MSNBC “Morning Joe” show is a distant second to Fox & Friends. So sad.

Samantha Power, President Obama’s Ambassador to the United Nations for four years also sent out a Tweet which read:

One by one, day by day, @realDonaldTrump is taking steps to destroy America’s fact-based institutions, at the same time he eviscerates rule of law. Appointing as @ODNIgov @RichardGrenell, who has politicized every issue he has touched & has contempt for facts, would be a travesty.

Whah, whah. Because, you know, facts were so important to the Obama Administration, right?

The New York Times was not amused:

President Trump on Wednesday named Richard Grenell, a vocal loyalist who quickly antagonized the German establishment as the American ambassador there, to be the acting director of national intelligence overseeing the nation’s 17 spy agencies.

By choosing Mr. Grenell, who has little experience in intelligence or in running a large bureaucracy, the president signaled that he wants a trusted, aggressive leader atop an intelligence community that he has long viewed with suspicion and at times gone to war against.

Trump appointed a “loyalist”, as opposed to the openly hostile types like, Marie Yovanovitch, who was pro-Hillary Clinton and worked against President Trump. Isn’t that what every President does? Appoint people who are loyal and trusted? Well, I should hope so.

CNBC always chimed in on the loyalty meme:

His nomination represents the elevation of another Trump loyalist to the top tier of the administration.

Grenell has been heavily criticized for his controversial opinions on Twitter about women, including 2016 Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton and MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow. Grenell is also openly gay and has also used his ambassador role to push for gay rights across the globe.

So, Grenell objected to the hanging of a gay man in Iran?

“This is not the first time the Iranian regime has put a gay man to death with the usual outrageous claims of prostitution, kidnapping, or even pedophilia. And it sadly won’t be the last time,” Grenell wrote. “Barbaric public executions are all too common in a country where consensual homosexual relationships are criminalized and punishable by flogging and death.”

He added that “politicians, the U.N., democratic governments, diplomats and good people everywhere should speak up — and loudly.”

Grenell is criticized for not working for other LGBTQ rights, such as marriage, but isn’t decriminalization and stopping the executions the first steps for human rights?

Ambassador Grenell is an excellent spokesman for the United States and the Trump Administration:

Yes, Richard Grenell admires Trump as a “master negotiator”. He also learned from the best with John Bolton and John Negroponte. Oh, and by the way, in addition to being Acting Director of National Intelligence overseeing 17 agencies, Grenell will keep his position of Ambassador to Germany.

The Victory Girls Blog has long been a fan of Ambassador Richard Grenell. We congratulate him on his new position.

“Richard Grenell” by Gage Skidmore is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0