President Trump’s envoy for special missions, Richard Grenell, is causing tensions within the State Department as critics say his “freelancing” is damaging U.S. diplomatic negotiations and threatening national security.
The most recent controversy includes a botched effort to secure the release of Americans unjustly detained in Venezuela that fell apart because Grenell and Secretary of State Marco Rubio were negotiating separate deals, The New York Times reported.
Grenell’s deal reportedly included an extension for Chevron to export oil from Venezuela, a policy option that Rubio has shot down in the past.
The reported episode is shining a light on dysfunction within Trump’s inner circle, coinciding with confusion surrounding the Pentagon’s halting weapons shipments to Ukraine and ever-changing goal posts on tariffs.
“It just says that the administration, part of it doesn’t know what the other’s doing, and that can put Americans at risk,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) told The Hill of the Venezuela discord.
Last month, Van Hollen joined a group of 20 bipartisan senators asking Rubio to continue efforts to free at least eight unjustly detained Americans in Venezuela.
Grenell is a divisive character in Trump world. He is lauded by supporters for being one of the president’s most ardent defenders, and for his willingness to buck conventional foreign policy thinking. But his critics within the administration succeeded in boxing him out of the top-level positions he coveted most, secretary of State and national security adviser.
Trump appointed him “envoy of special missions” with a mandate that stretched from Venezuela to North Korea. He has added to his portfolio as president of Washington’s cultural home, the Kennedy Center, and was dispatched to California to oversee the federal response to the wildfires.
But his role in Venezuela is amplifying the voices of critics who say his behind-the-scenes diplomacy is harming U.S. interests. While Grenell has brought home seven Americans unjustly detained in Venezuela, Rubio was forced in May to publicly reject Grenell’s suggestion that Trump would extend a license for Chevron to operate in Venezuela as an exchange for the Americans.
When asked about The New York Times reporting and who Grenell takes his direction from, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told The Hill, “There is no fraction or division. The President has one team and everyone knows he is the ultimate decision maker.”
Elliott Abrams, who served as special representative for Iran and Venezuela in Trump’s first term, said there are “certainly” tensions between Grenell and State.
“I think that’s what happens when Grenell goes freelancing,” said Abrams. “So I think what needs to happen here is to leave foreign affairs in the hands of the State Department, and in this case, Rubio and [Deputy Secretary of State] Chris Landau and just get Grenell’s butt out.”
One source close to Trump World said that “Ric Grenell is a man in search of a job.”
And another source familiar with the thinking of the White House described Grenell as “a little untethered.”
“I would describe Ric as kind of a little bit of — maybe not even a little bit — a loose cannon. He’s involved in a million things. He’s running around. The president likes him and it’s a classic thing, like, the president likes him, these guys feel empowered. There’s no checks, no balances,” the source added.
Grenell’s appointment as special envoy did not require Senate confirmation. The New York Times reported in December that while Grenell was chasing secretary of state or a high-level intelligence role, the confirmation hearings would have forced scrutiny of his communications role on behalf of foreign clients, including Hungary, Congo, Kenya and Iran.
While special envoys require Senate confirmation if under the purview of the secretary of State, the GOP-controlled Senate Foreign Relations Committee sided with Trump’s view that the special envoy position was operating under the purview of the president and did not require senate confirmation.
“Ric’s a good guy, close to the president, doing a good job,” Sen. James Risch (R-Idaho), chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told The Hill when asked about Grenell and Rubio’s efforts on Venezuela.
“He’s got a special role, and it’s a unique role. And as such, they have quite a bit of freedom in that role generally, and I know that he talks with us all the time. He talks with the secretary of State all the time, so that’s all I have to say.”
Trump’s other special envoys — including Steve Witkoff for the Middle East and Russia, Keith Kellogg for Ukraine and Massad Boulos for Africa — have also operated without confirmation.
Michael Rubin, senior fellow with the conservative Washington think tank the American Enterprise Institute, said Rubio needs to exercise more authority to keep Grenell in line.
“All administrations suffer from different people working at cross purposes. In the Trump administration, the problem compounds because Trump shoots from the hip and directs via social media post, and so underlings interpret their mandates in different ways,” Rubin said.
“In any administration, the job of the Secretary of State or the national security adviser is to contain this. As this is now just one person — Marco Rubio — it’s hard not to put the blame on him.”
Grenell’s reported deal is at odds with lawmakers who see any attempt to normalize or legitimize Venezuela’s dictator Nicolás Maduro as a dangerous threat to American national security.
In April, Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) praised Trump and Rubio for ending Chevron’s license and earlier said “there’s no scenario where the United States should do business with thugs like Maduro and his vile regime.”
The Department of Justice, during Trump’s first term, indicted Maduro and 14 other current and former high level officials for narco-terrorism, corruption, drug trafficking and other criminal charges.
Freddy Guevara, an exiled Venezuelan opposition figure and former vice president of Venezuela’s Parliament, pointed to Maduro’s alliance with America’s adversaries as further reason the U.S. should maintain its policy of isolation.
“The Maduro regime depends on the Chinese, on the Iranians, on the Russians — the people who are thinking that they are doing realpolitik are just being naive,” he said.
“There’s nothing that the United States can provide that will be more secure than the support of Iran and China and Russia.”
Rubio is seen by insiders as having clout with Trump than Grenell, at least for now.
“He’s manifested exactly what Trump wanted. Smart, good-looking guy who’s articulating, who parrots exactly what the president wants,” the source familiar with the thinking of the White House said. “He is the president’s guy.”
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