Never mind the angry rhetoric and the many anti-LGBTQ+ actions. Former Ambassador Richard Grenell says Donald Trump won’t judge anyone based on their sexuality if elected to the White House again.
“Donald Trump doesn't care if you're gay or straight, black, brown or white, or what gender you are,” Grenell asserted at the Republican National Convention. “He knows that we are all Americans and that it's time to put America first.”
Grenell was as the highest-ranking out official in Trump’s administration, serving as the U.S. ambassador to Germany from 2018 to 2020, and also as Trump’s director of national intelligence his last year in office. He since became one of Trump’s regular and controversial surrogates.
Wednesday night, he became the first out gay person with a prime-time speaking slot at the RNC. There, he focused most of his speech on foreign policy, claiming Trump both broke the Republican Party of a neoconservative agenda that led to a war in Iraq but maintained a strong national defense that deterred hostility at home and abroad.
“From 2001 to 2008 I served as America's spokesman at the United Nations. Back then, Republicans believed America's duty was to spread democracy by military force,” Grenell said. “We were misled about weapons of mass destruction. We intervened in other countries' affairs and signed treaties that only benefited other nations. We spent too many years ignoring America's priorities. That's what happened when Washington stopped being the capital of the United States and started being the capital of the world.”
But he said Democratic President Joe Biden has also overseen a period of threats to the U.S.
“After four years of Joe Biden, wars are back,” Grenell said. “The Taliban is back, and members of ISIS have slipped through America's broken southern border. Russia is sailing warships off the coast of Florida. China is bullying its neighbors. Iran is waging a war in Israel and Gaza.”
The out Republican also criticized Biden for encouraging diversity policies many feel have made a more welcoming society for LGBTQ+ Americans.
“Joe Biden's radical supporters have overtaken our universities, burning American flags, cheering for terrorists and calling for violent revolution,” Grenell claimed. "The reason the world is on fire is because President Biden is weak in more ways than one.”