Donald Trump Jr. took to Twitter to slam mainstream media journalists and others for their reaction to part of an exclusive interview with U.S. ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, remarking that President Trump “picked the right man” as ambassador.
Son of President Donald J. Trump, Donald Trump Jr., wrote his tweet in response to a torrent of criticism of Ambassador Grenell from mainstream media journalists like Anne Appelbaum who wrote on Twitter that Grenell was seeking to “unseat the current German government”, despite having said nothing of the sort in his Breitbart London interview last week.
Don Jr. wrote in response to the critics of Ambassador Grenell: “As the leftwing media and failed foreign policy establishment smears Richard Grenell today with #FakeNews, it just reinforces my belief that POTUS picked the right man for the job as Ambassador to Germany! #AmericaFirst.”
Donald Jr. was not the only individual to defend Ambassador Grenell, with former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer asking Appelbaum: “Can you please supply the quote in which he says this? I read the story – and it doesn’t imply what you said.”
Other political commentators weighed in on the ambassador’s comments, like radio host Tammy Bruce who wrote: “The attempt to gaslight us by putting words into @RichardGrenell’s mouth is an effort to cause distrust & tension in Trump WH. And during a time of sensitive intl events. Here’s a newsflash: WE’VE HAD IT [with] these games, your effort to smear our ambassador will fail.”
Mainstream media outlets in the English-speaking world, such as the BBC, the Guardian, the Independent, the Washington Post, NBC, the Financial Times, Politico, and others all picked up the story.
German media also published the interview with some publications like Die Welt offering similar coverage to their U.S. and UK media counterparts while the English-language version of Handelsblatt ran a headline claiming the Ambassador was seeking “regime change”, despite this not having been said, nor anything even remotely close to this being suggested by Grenell. Having claimed Grenell wanted to seek “regime change” it in the headline, the paper then credited the controversial term in their copy to a comment from a member of the far-left German Die Linke party.
After criticism, Handelsblatt subsequently removed the quote from their headline.
Grenell’s comments were also met with scorn from figures like Senator Chris Murphy, who Britain’s establishment BBC Radio 4 news quoted Monday from a Tweet he made that said: “When I raised concerns to Grenell about politicizing this post, he personally assured me that once he became Ambassador he would stay out of politics. This interview is awful – Ambassadors aren’t supposed to “empower” any political party overseas.”
The BBC Radio 4 news segment did not go so far to reveal Senator Murphy’s position on the left of the U.S. Democrat party, not his staunch opposition to the Trump agenda.
Politicians on the German left, such as Social Democrat (SPD) member Metin Kakverdi who also slammed Grenell saying, “In the past, Germany was fortunate to have had great US ambassadors who built bridges and did not do party politics.”
During the interview with Breitbart London, Ambassador Grenell stated: “I absolutely want to empower other conservatives throughout Europe, other leaders. I think there is a groundswell of conservative policies that are taking hold because of the failed policies of the left.”
He did not mention political parties by name nor did he mention any political leaders other than Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz who he called a “rock star”.
Grenell later took to Twitter himself to respond to the hysteria and misrepresentation on social media surrounding the interview. Democrat political consultant and blogger John Aravosis accused the Ambassador of possibly supporting recent comments from Alternative for Germany leader Alexander Gauland, who he described as a “Nazi enabler.”
Grenell hit back at the the comments, which he called “absurd” saying, “the idea that I’d endorse candidates/parties is ridiculous. I stand by my comments that we are experiencing an awakening from the silent majority – those who reject the elites & their bubble. Led by Trump.”
CNN took the opportunity presented by the interview to take pot-shots at Breitbart London as well, pointing to the criticism levelled at Ambassador Grenell for speaking to Breitbart at all, and noting controversy around a dispuited 2016 report while delicately stepping over Breitbart London’s significant and often ground-breaking reporting on Germany. Breitbart broke the Cologne New Year’s Eve scandal in the English-speaking press days before many major German outlets were even willing to write about the story, leading to plaudits published in Britain’s establishment The Times newspaper of record commending Breitbart for reporting the story.
Breitbart London has also reported extensively on left-wing extremism in Germany, where it is more virulent and violent than many other Western nations. Just last month Breitbart London revealed a “riot tourism” handbook published by alt-left Anti extremists which gave instructions on burning cars, attacking war memorials, and targeting police, political party officers, and soldiers.