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Richard Grenell, Ambassador to Germany and
impresario of the recent Belgrade/Pristina agreements that are
expected to open air and train service between the two cities, is
pulling up stakes. He is headed back to Washington to be Director of
National Intelligence, the leader if not the boss of 17 US
intelligence agencies with a budget of $50 billion. He will also be
the principal intelligence advisor to the President.
This is extraordinary. A gay Evangelical and white
nationalist, he is a “communications” (i.e. PR) guy with no
intelligence experience who has accumulated a dismal record for
offending Berlin. The ink on his Pristina/Belgrade agreements isn’t
even dry. I won’t be surprised if they evaporate before effective
implementation. Grenell pushed himself into the Balkans not to fix
anything but rather in a blatant effort to catch the President’s eye
by delivering some sort of international triumph. As soon as he had
even a glint of that, off he goes to bigger and better things.
A lot bigger and better. President Trump has been
unhappy with the intelligence community because it concluded that
Russia interfered with the 2016 election and will do it again if not
stopped. Trump has also been anxious to get evidence of Ukrainian
interference in the election and dirt on former Vice President Biden
and his son from Ukraine, efforts that resulted in impeachment. Had
the intelligence community delivered what he wanted in Ukraine,
Trump would not have needed Rudy Giuliani’s help.
The DNI job has been in “acting” hands since
August. It is being reported that Grenell will also be acting. That
avoids Senate confirmation, which could be difficult for Grenell. He
was confirmed as Ambassador to Germany by a dismal vote of only
56-42. Acting status also gives the President stronger leverage over
appointees. We can expect Grenell to toady 100% to Trump’s whims,
helping him to parry intelligence community judgments that differ
from the President’s predilections. This appointment–like Barr at
Justice, Pompeo at State, and O’Brien at the National Security
Council–is intended to solidify political control over key
government agencies and ensure that they toe Trump’s erratic lines,
no matter how far they stray from reality.
I suppose there have been more harmful
appointments in this Administration, but this one is destined to be
high on that scale. Grenell is a spinmeister, not a truth teller.
The intelligence community will find itself in not only incompetent
but ill-meaning hands. This would be the bottom of the barrel, if
the barrel had a bottom.
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