The Man Who May Be Tasked with Preventing World War III (updated)

What Happened to Ric Grenell?

As the members of Donald Trump’s new cabinet were being rolled out with remarkable rapidity, I kept asking myself where’s Ric, meaning Richard Grenell, a man I had assumed would be slated for a top job either on the intelligence or foreign policy sides.

During Trump’s first administration, Grenell had been ambassador to Germany, trusted with the challenging task of keeping their longtime Chancellor Angela Merkel in line, something he did particularly well, and then made temporary Director of National Intelligence, the position that has been given to Tulsi Gabbard, pending confirmation.

Rumor had it that Ric—I call him Ric as many do because I know him from my Los Angeles days; he lives in Palm Springs—was on the short list for Secretary of State.  He would have made a great one, but that appointment has been given to Marco Rubio who will be fine. Grenell might have done an even better job.

Still, Ric was plugging along, appearing on Newsmax and Fox doing commentary, dutifully applauding the appointments of everybody but him. In one of his slots, he even recommended Biden enlist Trump’s help right now in dealing with the escalating Ukrainian situation, an excellent suggestion that is unlikely to be taken…. And yet still no sign of anything for Grenell. 

What gives, I thought?

And then the proverbial other shoe dropped—quietly.  An “exclusive’’ popped on Reuters that not everyone appears to have noticed:

“President-elect Donald Trump is considering tapping Richard Grenell, his former intelligence chief, to be a special envoy for the Russia-Ukraine conflict, according to four sources familiar with the transition plans. …

“While there is currently no special envoy dedicated solely to resolving the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Trump is considering creating the role, according to the four sources, who requested anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

“Trump could ultimately decide not to create a special envoy for the conflict in Ukraine, although he is strongly considering doing so, the sources said. If he does, he could ultimately select someone else for the role, and there is no guarantee Grenell would accept.”

Was this a trial balloon or the truth?

I have absolutely no way of knowing and wouldn’t even dare attempt to find out, but if I were to hazard a guess, I would assume Trump is going to do this and that Richard Grennell would readily accept.

It would be the most important assignment imaginable because, in essence, Mr. Grennell would be tasked with helping humanity avoid WWIII. It’s hard to begin to enumerate what a disaster that would be in the nuclear/supersonic missile age.  We could bomb ourselves back to Paleolithic times.

 And yet we are closer to it than ever before with President Joe Biden, in or out of his dotage, giving Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy permission to fire American missiles into Russia and receiving the predictable responses from Vladimir Putin.

During the campaign, Mr. Trump claimed he could settle this war in a day.  Though this sounds like hyperbole, it is not completely.  The old/new president is known by foreign leaders as a man of his word, much more so than any president in recent memory, and therefore to be feared.

But this is an assignment he cannot do alone, although he will likely be heavily involved, probably already is.  But he needs someone to do the requisite shuttle diplomacy, someone of consummate diplomatic and political skills to go back and forth between Zelenskyy and Putin and bring this endless horror to some resolution before it’s too late. 

There is doubtless no one better than Ric Grenell for this task.  It will be interesting to see if his initial idea for there to be a neutral zone between the two countries holds firm.  He has also opposed Ukraine joining NATO, something with which I concur having spent some time in that part of the world.

Equally intriguing is the approach Donald Trump is taking with this.  Ric Grenell would be “special envoy” to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, someone working outside the normal channels to resolve a truly difficult situation, arguably the most complicated and fraught one extant. In his work he would not be responsible to the State Department, but directly to the president.

This is not so distant, when you think about it, from Mr. Trump’s approach to unwinding our overweening bureaucracy, the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) with Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.  The two men will be working outside the normal channels to reform the Deep State.

This is what many of us voted for—real change—and that usually comes from outside the system. It’s how the Abraham Accords happened in the first Trump administration.

Ric Grennell may be more valuable working on the outside than with one of the coveted titles around his neck. I hope Mr. Trump picks him and if he does we should all wish Mr. Grenell Godspeed in this noble task—even more so, as is quite possible, if he is already working at it behind the scenes

UPDATE: From Zerohedge: “Former military Commander-in-Chief and Ukraine’s current ambassador to the UK, Valery Zaluzhny, has warned that World War Three is already underway in a recent interview published by Politico.”