WASHINGTON, D.C., July 31, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) — President Trump appointed homosexual Richard Grenell, formerly of Fox News, to be the U.S. Ambassador to Germany and pro-marriage Pete Hoekstra, a former congressman, to be the U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands.
Grenell, 50, is an openly homosexual Michigander who served as spokesman for the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. under President George W. Bush. He would become Trump’s first openly homosexual ambassador. As is typical with Trump appointments, he was an early supporter of the president.
CNN quoted an unnamed member of the Trump administration saying Grenell’s “very long service at the United Nations and during the Bush administration and the contacts he established through that are very strongly in his favor.”
Grenell’s catty tweets and comments against Democratic women got the outspoken conservative fired from Mitt Romney’s failed presidential campaign in 2012. He also worked for Sen. John McCain’s unsuccessful bid for president.
In 2009, Grenell was a signatory to a “friend of the court” brief supporting same-sex “marriage” in the Supreme Court’s Hollingsworth v. Perry case, which legalized homosexual “marriage” in California.
As U.S. ambassador to Germany, Grenell will have to deal diplomatically with President Trump’s public criticism of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who parted with Trump on vetting refugees from countries that sponsor terrorism.
Grenell is currently in remission from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
The White House has not yet made an official announcement on Grenell. Should he actually be nominated, Grenell will have to be approved by the German government and confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
Hoekstra, a former Michigan congressman and Tea Party founder, was born in the Netherlands. He is not only pro-life but has been an outspoken opponent of same-sex “marriage.”
As a congressman, Hoekstra gained a 100 percent rating from the National Right to Life Society. He voted against destructive embryonic stem cell experimentation, against human cloning, and against tax funding for abortion under Obamacare. He voted in favor of crisis pregnancy center funding, abortion restrictions, and for other pro-life measures.
The Netherlands is one of the most liberal nations in the world and the first to legalize homosexual “marriage.” The Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant snidely observed that Trump “put a Dutchman in the Netherlands – but it is a Dutchman from the Netherlands of the 50s.”
Hoekstra, 63, has also come under liberal fire for acknowledging Islamic terrorism in Europe. “Cars are being set on fire. Politicians are being set on fire,” he pointed out. “Yes, there are no-go zones in the Netherlands.”
His 2015 book, Architects of Disaster: The Destruction of Libya, was attacked by the Obama White House because he criticized the “Arab Spring.”
A former Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Hoekstra asserted that the ouster of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was a serious mistake that turned the nation into an even greater safe haven for terrorists.
Sophie in’t Veld, the Dutch member of the European Parliament, said she could work with Hoekstra. “We are looking forward with interest to cooperating with Mr. Hoekstra,” she said.
However, she noted Dutch support for homosexuality and abortion, adding, “We will certainly remind him his roots lie in a country that values tolerance, equality and inclusion. … We expect the representative of our friend and ally the United States to fully and wholly respect our values.”
For his part, Hoekstra acknowledged the need to respect moral differences in a 2006 interview. “The Netherlands has made a different choice in a number of areas than the USA,” he said. “You must respect that as a foreign politician, even though you have a different opinion.”
Unlike Grenell, Hoekstra was not a Trump supporter but rallied behind John Kasich for president last year. He will also have to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.