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Trump's new intel chief was a Trump critic in 2016
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/21/grenell-trump-critic-116648
Richard Grenell, the acting director of national intelligence, has been described as a Trump loyalist. But that wasn't always true.
By NATASHA BERTRAND
02/21/2020 06:16 PM EST
President Trump’s new acting director of national intelligence, Richard Grenell, has for years been a vocal Trump loyalist, using his Twitter account to boost the president’s policies on everything from 5G and NATO to the Iran deal and the economy.
But Grenell wasn’t always a Trump supporter: In 2016, before the New York real estate mogul became the GOP presidential nominee, Grenell called Trump “dangerous” and spoke out regularly in favor of former Ohio governor John Kasich, according to deleted tweets recovered by cybersecurity firm Nisos and obtained by POLITICO.
“He’s dangerous!” read one deleted Grenell tweet from March 24, 2016, the day Trump tweeted that “NATO is obsolete and must be changed to additionally focus on terrorism as well as some of the things it is currently focused on!”
The tweets underscore a key irony of the Trump era: Some of the president’s fiercest critics during the 2016 race have since transformed into his most passionate defenders, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who warned that Trump would be an “authoritarian president”; GOP Senator Lindsey Graham, who denounced Trump as “a race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot” who would destroy the Republican Party; and acting chief of staff Mick Mulvany, who called Trump a “terrible human being” right before the 2016 election.
</snip>
Richard Grenell, the acting director of national intelligence, has been described as a Trump loyalist. But that wasn't always true.
By NATASHA BERTRAND
02/21/2020 06:16 PM EST
President Trump’s new acting director of national intelligence, Richard Grenell, has for years been a vocal Trump loyalist, using his Twitter account to boost the president’s policies on everything from 5G and NATO to the Iran deal and the economy.
But Grenell wasn’t always a Trump supporter: In 2016, before the New York real estate mogul became the GOP presidential nominee, Grenell called Trump “dangerous” and spoke out regularly in favor of former Ohio governor John Kasich, according to deleted tweets recovered by cybersecurity firm Nisos and obtained by POLITICO.
“He’s dangerous!” read one deleted Grenell tweet from March 24, 2016, the day Trump tweeted that “NATO is obsolete and must be changed to additionally focus on terrorism as well as some of the things it is currently focused on!”
The tweets underscore a key irony of the Trump era: Some of the president’s fiercest critics during the 2016 race have since transformed into his most passionate defenders, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who warned that Trump would be an “authoritarian president”; GOP Senator Lindsey Graham, who denounced Trump as “a race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot” who would destroy the Republican Party; and acting chief of staff Mick Mulvany, who called Trump a “terrible human being” right before the 2016 election.
</snip>
