Richard Grenell

Richard Allen Grenell (born September 18, 1966) is an American diplomat, public official, and former public relations consultant who has served as the special presidential envoy for special missions since 2025. Grenell additionally served as the acting director of the Kennedy Center from February 2025 to March 2026. A member of the Republican Party, he served as acting director of national intelligence (DNI) in 2020 under President Donald Trump, for which he is often cited as the first openly gay acting Cabinet-level official in U.S. history. He previously served as the United States ambassador to Germany from 2018 to 2020, and as the special presidential envoy for Serbia and Kosovo peace negotiations from 2019 to 2021. Grenell was a U.S. State Department spokesperson to the United Nations during the George W. Bush administration. Following his State Department tenure, he formed Capitol Media Partners, a political consulting firm; he also was a Fox News contributor. Grenell was a foreign policy spokesperson for Mitt Romney during his 2012 presidential campaign. In September 2017, Trump nominated Grenell as the U.S. ambassador to Germany. On April 26, 2018, he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate by a vote of 56 to 42. Grenell presented his credentials to the president of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, on May 8, 2018. His tenure in Germany was controversial; he was described as politically and diplomatically isolated due to his association with the far right, and he was criticized as displaying a lack of professionalism. Trump named Grenell acting director of national intelligence in February 2020; he relinquished the role in May 2020 upon the confirmation of John Ratcliffe to the post. Grenell expressed interest in running in the 2021 California gubernatorial recall election, but on July 15, 2021 – the day before the filing deadline – he appeared on The Sean Hannity Show to announce that he would not run as a replacement candidate.[edit]