Prior to his service at the
State Department, Grenell was a political adviser to a number of Republicans, including
George Pataki and
Dave Camp. He also served as press secretary for
Mark Sanford on Capitol Hill in the mid-1990s.
Minister-Counselor, State Department (2001–2008) In 2001, Grenell was appointed by President
George W. Bush as Director of Communications and Public Diplomacy for the
United States permanent representative to the United Nations in New York with the rank of Minister-Counselor. Serving in that role until 2008, Grenell advised four different U.S. ambassadors. During his tenure, Grenell promulgated U.S. official position and strategy on such issues as the
war on terror, global peacekeeping operations,
nuclear proliferation, and the UN
Oil for Food corruption scandal. Grenell has written for
The Wall Street Journal,
CBS News,
CNN,
Politico,
Huffington Post,
The Washington Times, and
Al Jazeera. Grenell worked for Republican candidate
Mitt Romney as a spokesperson (on foreign policy), during his 2012 presidential campaign, making him the first openly gay person in that role for a Republican presidential candidate. Grenell was a signatory to a 2013
amicus curiae brief submitted to the
Supreme Court in support of same-sex marriage during the
Hollingsworth v. Perry case. In 2016, Grenell's consulting firm accepted more than $100,000 from the Magyar Foundation of North America to provide
public relations support for the
Hungarian government of Prime Minister
Viktor Orbán. Grenell did not disclose this payment under the
Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) prior to his work in the Trump administration. During the 2016 Republican primaries, Grenell warned his Twitter followers about Donald Trump, describing him as "unserious", "reckless", and "dangerous". Grenell deleted all of his negative tweets about Trump after Trump became the Republican nominee. Grenell then began praising Trump regularly on
Fox News and on Twitter. Days after Grenell's appointment as DNI, CNN reported that his personal website had — until 2018 — touted consulting work he had done for clients in Iran, China, Kazakhstan, and other countries.
Ambassador to Germany (2017–2020) in 2018 with
Yehudah Teichtal at the U.S. Embassy in Berlin, 2018 In September 2017, Trump nominated Grenell to become the
United States ambassador to Germany. After a significant delay, the
United States Senate confirmed Grenell 56 – 42 on April 26, 2018. Grenell was sworn in by Vice President
Mike Pence on May 3, 2018, making him the highest-ranking openly gay U.S. ambassador. Grenell was also under consideration for the posts of
U.S. ambassador to NATO and
U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, the latter position being filled by Ambassador
Kelly Craft. Grenell presented his credentials to the
president of Germany on May 8, 2018. Within hours of taking office, Grenell offended German diplomats and business leaders when he tweeted that "German companies doing business in Iran should wind down operations immediately". The tweet was widely perceived as a threat, with the
Foreign Minister of Luxembourg,
Jean Asselborn, commenting that "This man was accredited as ambassador only yesterday. To give German businesses such orders (…) that is just not how you can treat your allies". The leader of Germany's
Social Democratic Party said that Grenell "does appear to need some tutoring" in the "fine art of diplomacy", while the
Left Party urged the Merkel government to summon Grenell to explain his comments. This comment was described as a breach of diplomatic protocol and a breach of Article 41 of the
Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which stipulates that ambassadors have a "duty not to interfere in the internal affairs of that State".
Martin Schulz, former leader of the
Social Democratic Party of Germany, said, "What this man is doing is unheard of in international diplomacy. If a German ambassador were to say in Washington that he is there to boost the Democrats, he would have been kicked out immediately." In December 2018, during the furor surrounding
Der Spiegel writer
Claas Relotius, who it turned out had been fabricating stories for years, Grenell wrote to the magazine complaining about an
anti-American institutional bias, and asked for an independent investigation. In January 2019, Grenell told
Handelsblatt that European companies participating in the construction of the
Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline are "always in danger, because sanctions are always possible". U.S. administrations had long opposed the Russian-backed Nord Stream 2, a pipeline for delivering
natural gas from Russia to Germany. Grenell also threatened to sanction German companies involved in the construction of the Nord Stream 2.
Der Spiegel published a profile of Grenell on January 11, 2019, using interviews with 30 "American and German diplomats, cabinet members, lawmakers, high-ranking officials, lobbyists and think tank experts". The magazine wrote that "almost all of these sources paint an unflattering portrait of the ambassador, one remarkably similar to Donald Trump, the man who sent him to Berlin. A majority of them describe Grenell as a vain, narcissistic person who dishes out aggressively, but can barely handle criticism." The profile claimed that Grenell was politically isolated in Berlin because of his alleged association with the far-right
Alternative for Germany Party, causing the leaders of the mainstream German parties — including the Chancellor herself — to avoid contact with him; while Grenell had pressed German parliamentarians to invite him to their districts, most had declined. The sources claimed that Grenell knew little "about Germany and Europe, that he ignores most of the dossiers his colleagues at the embassy write for him, and that his knowledge of the subject matter is superficial". In the fall of 2018, Grenell played a key diplomatic role in planning the
arrest of Julian Assange by providing
backchannel assurances to
Ecuador that Assange would not face the
death penalty in the United States. On May 25, 2020, after
John Ratcliffe was confirmed, Grenell confirmed he would resign as ambassador in the coming weeks. He formally resigned on June 1, 2020.
Special presidential envoy for Serbia and Kosovo peace negotiations (sitting left),Richard Grenell, Special
U.S. Presidential Envoy for
Serbia and Kosovo Peace Negotiations (standing right),Eset Berisha, Director of the
Civil Aviation Authority of Kosovo (sitting right) In October 2019, Trump named Grenell a special envoy for
Serbia and
Kosovo peace negotiations. He continued serving part-time as special envoy after his resignation as ambassador, working from the White House. After months of diplomatic talks, on January 20, 2020, Grenell facilitated negotiations between Serbia and Kosovo where the two nations agreed to restore flights between their capitals for the first time in more than two decades. A June 27, 2020, peace summit between the two sides was arranged to take place in Washington D.C., but was canceled due to the potential indictment of
Hashim Thaçi on war crimes. According to a report by
NPR, Grenell pressured Kosovo prime minister
Albin Kurti to accept a deal favorable to Serbia, including dropping tariffs and agreeing to land swaps, and publicly threatened to withdraw U.S. peacekeepers. The analysis says this contributed to Kurti's removal as prime minister, prompting popular protests from his anti-corruption supporters. Grenell organized a new summit, located at the White House, for September 3 and 4, 2020. Grenell, along with his friend
Robert C. O'Brien, cohosted the talks. On September 4,
Serbian president Aleksandar Vučić and
Kosovo prime minister Avdullah Hoti signed the
Kosovo and Serbia economic agreements. The signing ceremony took place in the
Oval Office at the
White House in Trump's presence on September 4, 2020. On February 20, 2020, Trump replaced Maguire as Acting
Director of National Intelligence, appointing Grenell to the role. Maguire and his deputy,
Andrew Hallman, resigned from the Office of the Director for National Intelligence (ODNI).
Kash Patel — a
National Security Council official and former aide to Congressman
Devin Nunes — was named the next day as a senior advisor to Grenell. As a temporary incumbent, Grenell was not subject to Senate confirmation. Although Trump indicated he would be appointing a new U.S. ambassador to Germany, Grenell kept this position while also serving in his new role, and Grenell indicated he did not expect to take the director of national intelligence job on a permanent basis.
Policies Grenell enacted a hiring freeze at ODNI and ordered a review of the agency's personnel and mission. On May 8, he announced a reorganization of ODNI including a consolidated cyber office, and on May 15, he announced organizational changes to the
National Counterterrorism Center. Also on May 15, Grenell announced that ODNI would lead election security threat briefings for 2020 presidential candidates, replacing the
FBI. In April 2020, Grenell said the administration was considering policies to reduce intelligence-sharing with countries that criminalize homosexuality. On April 29, 2020, he ordered each intelligence agency to review their policies on handling and sharing information on U.S. citizens. On April 2 and 15, 2020, Grenell acted to declassify several footnotes in a report on
FISA abuse released by DOJ inspector general
Michael E. Horowitz. He also played a role in the release of 57 transcripts of Russia probe interviews by the House Intelligence Committee. On May 12, 2020, Grenell declassified the names of Obama administration officials who
unmasked Michael Flynn. A subsequent Justice Department investigation of Obama administration unmasking concluded in October 2020 with no findings of substantive wrongdoing. On May 19, 2020, Grenell declassified an email that Obama's national security advisor
Susan Rice sent to herself. On the day his tenure ended, Grenell declassified several documents related to the Russia probe.
Private sector (2020–2024) In August 2020, the
American Center for Law and Justice announced that Grenell had been named Special Advisor for National Security and Foreign Policy for the organization. That month, Grenell became a senior advisor to the
Republican National Committee, focusing on outreach to LGBT voters. In 2021, Grenell was also hired as on-air analyst and contributor by
Newsmax.
Controversies and Grenell in the Berlin Embassy in 2019 Grenell's selection as a foreign policy adviser to the 2012 Romney campaign was controversial. He was criticized for "snarky" tweets about various public women and that he is openly gay. and
Reuters journalist Irwin Arieff described Grenell as "the most dishonest and deceptive press person I ever worked with." A February 20, 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. On March 10, 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 stated 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." On November 5, 2020, Grenell appeared as a speaker of the Trump campaign press conference in
North 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. Grenell sought to build support for Trump's
2024 presidential campaign among
Libertarian activists and donors.
Senior fellow at Carnegie Mellon University In June 2020, Richard Grenell was made a senior fellow at the
Carnegie Mellon University's Institute for Politics and Strategy in the
Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences. He is to work on two projects, a report on the
worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality and various campus-engagement projects about the changing face of Europe. Grenell's position as Senior Fellow is for one year and is a non-teaching position. Grenell's appointment was controversial at the university because of his "hard-right politics," his support for President Trump's agenda, and his "apparent history of inflammatory statements."
Kiron Skinner, the founding director of the Institute for Politics and Strategy, defended the hiring decision on the basis of academic freedom and diversity of thought. They also found that there had been no other "senior fellow" in the institute's history, and that no other visiting scholars in the university's history had received the title of senior fellow. It also stated that "there are features of the hiring of Mr. Grenell which, to our knowledge, are unique in Carnegie Mellon's experience, and for which Carnegie Mellon does not currently have policies. As such, the determination of whether appropriate policies and procedures were used cannot be answered." Grenell's first assignment in this role was to oversee the administration's response to the
2025 California wildfires. On January 31, 2025, Grenell travelled to
Caracas, Venezuela, to meet with Venezuelan president
Nicolas Maduro allegedly to discuss Trump's deportation strategy for accepting undocumented immigrants. The following day, on February 1, six American prisoners in Venezuela were released. Trump announced in an unverified post on
Truth Social that this arrangement was in exchange for Venezuela accepting future Venezuelan deportees from the United States. Details on the detainees have not yet been released. On September 1, Maduro said that Grenell and the U.S. State Department were his two lines of communication with the Trump administration. In October 2025, the Miami Herald reported that the transition of power to Delcy Rodriguez, as relayed by Grenell, had been rejected by the State Department: "A hardline faction led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio prevailed, warning that any agreement short of regime change would betray democratic principles."
Kennedy Center director signing Grenell, February 2025 (Grenell discussed until 3:08) On February 10, 2025, Trump appointed Grenell as the interim
Kennedy Center executive director. In April 2025, guitarist and composer
Yasmin Williams emailed Grenell expressing concern about
DEI rollbacks and other changes made by Trump. She stated, "These events have caused a major negative reaction in my musical community to playing at the Kennedy Center, with lots of individuals I know ultimately canceling their shows there". In his reply, Grenell stated, "Every single person who cancelled a show did so because they couldn't be in the presence of Republicans," and "I cut the DEI bullshit because we can't afford to pay people for fringe and niche programming that the public won't support". In September 2025, Grenell's office reserved seats for a group of
Log Cabin Republicans who organized a disruption of Williams's performance at the center. Grenell was viewed as a "polarizing figure" at Kennedy Center. His management style fueled exits of supporters, artists and top officials including the Executive Director Jean Davidson. In February 2025, according to the
Financial Times, Richard Grenell played a key role in securing the release of
Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan, two influencers
prosecuted in
Romania on charges of
rape and
human trafficking. He discussed the matter with
Romanian foreign minister Emil Hurezeanu at the
61st Munich Security Conference. Grenell denied any pressure on the Romanian government. Also in February 2025, the German tabloid
Bild reported that Grenell was conducting secret negotiations with
Russia in
Switzerland to reopen the
Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Grenell denied any involvement. In March 2026, Trump announced in a social media post that Grenell would be stepping down. Grenell will be replaced by Matt Floca, Vice President of Facilities at the Kennedy Center.
Private sector (2025) In May 2025,
Live Nation announced that Grenell had joined their board of directors. Supporters of the Justice Department's
antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation–Ticketmaster suggested that the appointment was an attempt to curry favor with the Trump administration amid the conflict. == Personal life ==