US President-elect Donald Trump is considering appointing former national intelligence chief Richard Grenell as special envoy on the Russia-Ukraine war, Reuters reports.
Grenell was reportedly the U.S. ambassador to Germany and acting director of National Intelligence during Trump’s first term (2017-2021).
He will play a key role in Trump’s efforts to end the war if he is eventually selected for the position.
Sources clarified that although there is currently no special envoy dedicated solely to resolving the Russia-Ukraine war, Trump is considering creating such a position.
At the same time, Trump may decide not to create a special envoy for the war in Ukraine. But if he does, he may choose someone else for the role. And there is no guarantee that Grenell will accept, Reuters reports.
If Grenell does agree, some of his positions may make Ukraine’s leaders think twice. For example, during a Bloomberg roundtable in July, he advocated the creation of “autonomous zones” as a means of resolving the conflict. He also suggested that he would not support Ukraine joining NATO in the near future, “a position he shares with many of Trump’s allies.”
Grenell’s supporters note that he has a long diplomatic career and a deep knowledge of European affairs. In addition to serving as ambassador to Germany, Grenell was also the president’s special envoy for peace talks in Serbia and Kosovo.
Reuters notes that Grenell, who campaigned for Trump ahead of the Nov. 5 election, was one of the top contenders for secretary of state. His nomination was eventually offered to Republican Senator Marco Rubio, which surprised and upset some of Grenell’s close allies.
Germany’s Angela Merkel recalls tricky dealings with world leaders from Donald Trump to Vladimir Putin during her 16-year chancellorship in her frank memoirs, published as her legacy comes under intense scrutiny.
Here are some quotes from “Freedom: Memories 1954-2021” according to extracts released in Die Zeit weekly before next week’s official publication:
RUSSIAN PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN
“Someone who was always on his guard to avoid being treated badly and always ready to dish it out, including power games with dogs and making others wait for him. You could find all this childish, reprehensible. You could shake your head at it. But it didn’t take Russia off the map.”
“He was not interested in building democratic structures or prosperity for a well-functioning economy in his country or elsewhere. Rather, he wanted to counter the fact that the United States had emerged victorious from the Cold War. He wanted Russia to remain an indispensable pole in a multipolar world after the end of the Cold War. To achieve this, he primarily drew on his experience in the security services.”
WRANGLING OVER UKRAINE AT NATO SUMMIT IN BUCHAREST, 2008:
“I thought it was an illusion to assume that the Membership Action Plan (MAP) status would have given Ukraine and Georgia protection from Putin’s aggression, that this status would have had a deterrent effect to the extent that Putin would have accepted the developments without doing anything.
“Would it have been conceivable that NATO member states would have responded militarily – with material as well as troops – and intervened? Would it have been conceivable that I, as Federal Chancellor, would have asked the German Bundestag for such a mandate for our Bundeswehr as well and would have received a majority in favour?”
“In another context, which I no longer remember in detail
he (Putin) later said to me: “You won’t be Chancellor forever. And then they’ll become a member of NATO. And I want to prevent that.” And I thought: You won’t be president forever either. Nevertheless, my worries about future tensions with Russia in Bucharest had not diminished.”
ON DONALD TRUMP
“He saw everything from the perspective of the property developer he was before entering politics. Each parcel of land could only be sold once, and if he didn’t get it someone else did. That’s how he saw the world.”
“For years, the many German cars on the streets of New York had been a thorn in his side. That Americans were buying them could, in his opinion, only be due to dumping prices and alleged exchange rate manipulation between the euro and the dollar.”
She wrote how Trump did not shake her hand for photographers at a White House meeting in 2017 even after she whispered to him that they should. “As soon as I said that, I shook my head inwardly at myself. How could I have forgotten that Trump knew exactly what effect he wanted to achieve.”
“He was obviously very fascinated by the Russian president. In the years that followed I had the impression that politicians with autocratic and dictatorial traits captivated him.
“We talked on two different levels. Trump on an emotional level, me on a factual one. For him, all countries were in competition with each other, in which the success of one was the failure of the other. He did not believe that co-operation could increase the prosperity of all.”
CHILDHOOD AND LIFE IN COMMUNIST EAST GERMANY:
“Life in the GDR was a constant life on the edge. Even if a day began in a carefree manner, everything could change in a matter of seconds if political boundaries were transgressed… the state knew no mercy. Finding out exactly where these boundaries lay was the real art of living. My somewhat conciliatory character and my pragmatic approach helped me.”
She described a sense of superiority “because, despite everything, this state did not manage to deprive me of something that made me live, feel and sense: a certain degree of carefreeness.”
US President-elect Donald Trump will appoint his top immigration adviser, Stephen Miller, as deputy chief of staff for political affairs, the Associated Press reported on Monday.
“Trump has chosen … Stephen Miller to be deputy chief of staff for political affairs,” the publication writes.
US Vice President-elect J.D. Vance reacted to the news on social network X, congratulating Miller and calling him “a great choice for the president.”
Miller is a longtime Trump supporter. He served as a senior White House adviser during Trump’s first presidency. CNN notes that he has been a vocal advocate for stricter immigration policy. Miller is one of the main “architects” of Trump’s plans for the mass expulsion of illegal immigrants.
http://relocation.com.ua/tramp-obrav-sobi-zastupnyka-hlavy-administratsii/
The cryptocurrency forecasting platform Polymarket has launched a betting platform that will allow you to place bets on whether Donald Trump will be able to end the war in Ukraine in 90 days if he wins the 2024 US presidential election.
A “yes” bet requires two conditions to be met:
Donald Trump wins the US presidential election.
Ukraine and Russia declare a truce, ceasefire, or conclude an agreement to resolve the current conflict at any time from the time the Associated Press announces Trump’s victory until April 19, 2025 (23:59 EST).
At the time of publication, the probability of this scenario is 46%.
Polymarket is an open market prediction platform where users can place bets on the outcomes of various events, including political, economic, and social issues.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who had earlier declared himself the winner of the presidential race, said he intends to end wars in the world.
“I’m not going to start wars, I’m going to end wars,” Trump said in a speech to his supporters in Palm Beach, Florida.
He emphasized that in the four years of his first presidential term, “we have had no wars, except for the defeat of the Islamic State.”
US presidential candidate from the Republican Party Donald Trump has already received 277 electoral votes out of the 270 needed to win, while Democratic candidate Kamala Harris has received 226 votes, FoxNews reports.
CNN, for its part, predicts Trump’s victory in Pennsylvania, which will provide him with the necessary 270 electoral votes. “Former President Donald Trump will win the key swing state of Pennsylvania, CNN predicts. There are 19 electoral votes at stake in Pennsylvania,” the report said.
