President Donald Trump has selected out
foreign policy expert Richard Grenell to serve as ambassador to
Germany.
In a statement late Friday, the White
House announced that Trump had named Grenell to the post. The U.S.
Senate must confirm the nomination.
Grenell's nomination was expected. In
July, Grenell tweeted a photo of himself with the president in the
Oval Office. “Thank you, Mr. President,” he captioned the photo.
Grenell served as a US spokesman at the
United Nations during former President George W. Bush's
administration. He worked on Arizona Senator John McCain's
unsuccessful presidential campaign. In 2012, he joined the
presidential campaign of Mitt Romney, serving as the Republican
nominee's foreign policy spokesman, but resigned less than two weeks
later amid growing pressure from social conservatives over his sexual
orientation. He currently appears on Fox News Channel as a foreign
affairs commentator and was one of the president's earliest foreign
policy supporters.
Grenell, 50, is Trump's first openly
gay ambassador nominee.
According to The
Atlantic, Grenell has been in a 15-year relationship with
Matt Lashley, a graduate from Jerry Falwell's Liberty University who,
like Grenell, identifies as a conservative Christian.
Grenell is also a cancer survivor,
beating a diagnosis of non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma in 2013.