Rick Grenell: The America First Policy Is ‘Never Going Back in the Bottle’

Support for President Donald Trump’s “America First” foreign policy cannot be erased, said Richard Grenell, former acting Director of National Intelligence, in an interview with Breitbart News Senior Editor-at-Large Joel Pollak on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Sunday.

Pollak asked what threat a future administration led by former Vice President Joe Biden would pose to Trump’s foreign policies.

Grenell remarked, “Let’s just be honest, the American First policy and the America First agenda that Donald Trump has unleashed is never going back to the bottle. We have won the debate on putting America first. No matter what [President-elect] Joe Biden or any future president does, they are not going to be able to put America second without a huge cry from the American people. “

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Grenell continued, “Foreign policy has always been one of those things that the American people have not fully embraced, or understood, or wanted to get into the details of for a variety of reasons. I think the American people are very smart, but sometimes they are too busy to get to know every single detail of what the State Department is doing.”

The foreign policy bureaucracy exploits the public’s lack of familiarity with foreign policy in justifying its operations and largesse, he asserted.

Grenell explained, “The State Department types — many bureaucrats,  and I would say foreign policy experts in Washington — have taken advantage of the American people in that they they go out and make these policies around the world, spend the American people’s money, and don’t ever come back to talk about what the American people are paying for, or what they’re doing around the world.”

“What Donald Trump has done with pushing the America First agenda is never going to cease,” added Grenell. “Future presidents may try to couch it a little bit differently, or they may try to roll it back, but they are going to be unable to do that.”

Grenell credited Trump with building popular support for a U.S. foreign policy prioritizing the American national interest.

“The American people now see that their money must be spent wisely, including at the State Department, including for foreign policy,” Grenell held. “Experts in Washington have controlled and monopolized the spending, and tried to pretend like they’re smarter than everybody and really gone down the path of being a globalist for America.”

Grenell continued, “Those days are over. The American people are much more engaged now because of Donald Trump, and they’re going to expect their government to put America first.”

Pollak highlighted left-wing news media hype of Pete Buttigieg as potentially “the first openly gay member” of a presidential cabinet, despite Grenell, who is openly gay, serving as Trump’s acting director of national intelligence.

Grenell said Trump does not practice left-wing “identity politics” when making appointments or nominations.

“I’m really proud of President Trump,” Grenell declared. “He is somebody who doesn’t send out press releases when he hires somebody about irrelevant characteristics that they have. He’s somebody who doesn’t keep lists. He doesn’t want to play this identity politics game, and thank God, because it’s really what I think the gay community has been asking for for a very long time.”

Grenell continued, “I was close friends with Andrew Breitbart who really took a stand with me a long time ago. I can’t even guess the year, it’s been so long, but to just bring the gay conservatives to the table of the Republican Party and the conservative party. Andrew was a leader on these issues, and I certainly will never forget it,  and I’m indebted to his leadership as a straight guy who just saw an injustice and stood up and helped lead the fight.”

“I think Andrew Breitbart would be ecstatic with Donald Trump and the way that he goes about hiring people according to what they do and how good they are in their job and what kind of expertise they bring to the table,” concluded Grenell. “I’m tired of having the rainbow table down the hallway, which is where most politicians want us to be, down the hallway, where they check in every once in a while, and Donald Trump just said, ‘No, you’re you’re going to be at the cabinet table, where I’m hiring somebody according to their expertise not according to some sort of box that I need to check and then send out a press release on.'”