Q Toon: Ric's Place

You may never have heard of Richard Grenell, but he has shown up in my cartoons a few times by virtue of his being gay. Religious Right-wingers pressured Mitt Romney to drop him as a foreign policy adviser during Romney's 2012 presidential run. More recently, he has been behind the Trump administration's lip service to LGBTQ issues, at least as far as asking foreign countries to be less homophobic is concerned.

Trump named Grenell as his Ambassador to Germany in September, 2017; he took office the following April. He promptly irked his German hosts by adopting Trump's propensity for Twitter and decidedly undiplomatic language, tweeting in his first day at work a demand for German companies to stop doing business with Iran.

He has weighed in on domestic politics in Germany and elsewhere, praising xenophobic ultra-right-wingers such as Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurtz and Germany's Alternative für Deutschland Party, and criticizing moderates and liberals including German President Angela Merkel.

On February 10, Trump named Grenell as Acting Director of National Intelligence, replacing Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire, who fell afoul of the Corrupt Trump Administration when a subordinate briefed the House Intelligence Committee on Russia's efforts to get Trump reelected. As an "Acting" Director, Grenell bypasses the need for Senate confirmation; he can continue in office until March 11, or, if a permanent Director is nominated before then, until that person takes over.

The Corrupt Trump Administration is riddled with "Acting" officials. Mick Mulvaney has been "Acting" Chief of Staff since January 2, 2019. The Department of Homeland Security has been led by a series of "Acting" Secretaries since April of last year.

Trump has had an acting head of the Small Business Administration for 277 days, which is about one-quarter of his presidency. He’s had one in charge of the Environmental Protection Agency for 234 days, or about 20 percent. The Defense Department has been run by an acting head for 203 days, and the directorate of national intelligence is now at 188 days and counting. Four other Cabinet jobs — attorney general, interior secretary, Veterans Affairs secretary and Health and Human Services secretary — have all had at least 99 days of acting control.

It took seven months for the Senate to confirm Grenell as Ambassador to Germany. Since Trump believes, and the Republican Senate has acquiesced, "I have the right to do whatever I want," don't expect anything to deter Trump from keeping Grenell on as aDNI until the day finally arrives that we become a constitutional republic again.

I only hope I live to see it.