# What are Richard Grenell's qualifications? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 20, 2020, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-richard-grenells-qualifications/848255 "2020-02-20T20:04:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2020, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-richard-grenells-qualifications/848255/1 "2020-02-20T20:04:15Z")
Trump just picked Richard Grenell to be the acting director of national intelligence, over seeing 17 spy agencies. What in his background qualifies him for this position? ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2020, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-richard-grenells-qualifications/848255/2 "2020-02-20T20:06:01Z")
Nothing. He’s a Trump toadie, nothing more. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2020, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-richard-grenells-qualifications/848255/3 "2020-02-20T20:30:01Z")
Concur. He has the only qualification needed: Trump believes he will do as he’s told. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2020, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-richard-grenells-qualifications/848255/4 "2020-02-20T20:45:02Z")
While his academics creditials are nice, he has spent a lot of his career as basically a PR spin doctor for various politicians. Which is actually not all that terrible of a qualification for ambassador. OTOH, from the Wikipedia [article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Grenell#Ambassador_to_Germany) on him: > [@](#): > > 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 claimed 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 is politically isolated in Berlin because of his 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.[34] The sources claimed that Grenell “knows 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.” So he is a thoroughly failed ambassador with an antipathy to major tasks an intelligence director absolutely has to do. ---
**Author:** ![Oredigger77](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oredigger77/32/3181_2.png) [@Oredigger77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oredigger77)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2020, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-richard-grenells-qualifications/848255/5 "2020-02-20T22:01:37Z")
He can suck the chrome off of a trailer hitch? ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2020, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-richard-grenells-qualifications/848255/6 "2020-02-21T03:21:50Z")
Qualifications are completely irrelevant with regard to current White House appointments. Assuming the typical arc of Trump-era hirees, Der Prez heard he was a great guy, well-respected, has been doing an incredible job in his previous position. When he turns out to be a) so incompetent and/or mired in scandal even Trump can’t let him remain in office, or b) fails to express the required amount of fealty at the required frequency, Trump never knew him, only was hired because he came to Trump tearfully begging for the job, and couldn’t be gotten rid of fast enough. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2020, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-richard-grenells-qualifications/848255/7 "2020-02-21T04:06:10Z")
I fully expect to hear within a month that one or more intelligence agencies will have “discovered evidence” that Joe and Hunter Biden worked with the Ukrainians to hack the last Presidential election as part of a conspiracy to get Trump elected President so he could be impeached and removed from office. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2020, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-richard-grenells-qualifications/848255/8 "2020-02-21T04:39:05Z")
[Congressman David Cicilline (D-RI) had some things to say about Richard Grinnell today](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVwMlfmaoIA) (4:14 video). > [@Congressman David Cicilline (D-RI)](#): > > Richard Grenell is basically an internet troll. He’s a loyalist to the President; he is not qualified to hold this position even for a single day.