{"id":35344,"date":"2026-02-13T19:08:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T22:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2026\/02\/13\/downfall-of-trump-vp-hopeful-exiled-to-construction-job-filthy-messages-oval-office-humiliations-and-the-ice-maiden-who-fing-hates-his-guts\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T19:08:00","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T22:08:00","slug":"downfall-of-trump-vp-hopeful-exiled-to-construction-job-filthy-messages-oval-office-humiliations-and-the-ice-maiden-who-fing-hates-his-guts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2026\/02\/13\/downfall-of-trump-vp-hopeful-exiled-to-construction-job-filthy-messages-oval-office-humiliations-and-the-ice-maiden-who-fing-hates-his-guts\/","title":{"rendered":"Downfall of Trump VP hopeful exiled to construction job: Filthy messages, Oval Office humiliations and the Ice Maiden who ‘f***ing hates his guts’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Richard Grenell worked years to climb through MAGA’s cut-throat ranks, remarkably scrapping his way into leading the nation’s premiere intelligence apparatus in 2020.<\/p>\n

Six years later, at the peak of Donald Trump<\/a>‘s power, he finds himself running a theater – and now even that job is being put on ice.<\/p>\n

Grenell’s career trajectory took another sharp turn this month when Trump announced plans to shutter the Kennedy Center for a massive two-year construction project.<\/p>\n

The move follows a year of internal chaos and high-profile cancellations that have plagued the venue under Grenell’s watch. Now, the ‘total overhaul’ leaves the former intelligence bosss prestige in literal and metaphorical rubble.<\/p>\n

‘We were all pretty much blindsided. I’m worried they are going to tear it all down,’ said one source who has worked with Grenell at the Kennedy Center.<\/p>\n

The 59-year-old, Michigan-born openly gay Grenell presents as the ultimate political insurgent – a cantankerous and hard-edged diplomat who bypassed traditional channels to deliver results for an audience of one, the president.<\/p>\n

But as the US operation to captureNicols Maduro<\/a>transformed the global landscape, the man once seen as a shoe-in for a top Cabinet post found himself frozen out of Trump’s inner circle.<\/p>\n

Branded ‘a ruthlessly ambitious’ a******,’ by two former colleagues, Grenell’s sharp elbows and short temper have finally caught up with him, as he’s been pushed out of the administration’s most high-level and sensitive foreign policy decisions, according to four diplomatic sources who have worked closely with him.<\/p>\n

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Grenell has been pushed out of the administration’s most high-level and sensitive foreign policy decisions and exiled to run a theater in DC<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Grenell was given locked out of talks with Venezuela after butting heads with Secretary of State Marco Rubio<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The most substantive clash centered on Venezuela, a hot spot he was assigned to as their ‘special envoy’ at the top of Trump’s second term.<\/p>\n

Grenell initially saw tangible gains from his softer approach, negotiating prisoner releases and pushing for ‘pragmatism’ that favored oil deals over regime change. But he soon found himself in tactical gridlock with Secretary of State Marco Rubio.<\/p>\n

As Rubio pushed for ‘maximum pressure’ and a military buildup that eventually led to the shock capture of Maduro, Grenell was advocating for a ‘different relationship’ with the dictator, rooted in diplomacy and coercion.<\/p>\n

‘Even Maria Machado refused to meet with him,’ a US diplomat who worked with Grenell explained. ‘We heard she did not want to deal with him, and did not like what he stood for.’<\/p>\n

The US diplomat familiar with their botched meeting told the Daily Mail that Machado’s reluctance to deal with Grenell came partly from a mix of ‘arrogance and inflexibility.’<\/p>\n

‘She thought Grenell was beneath her… didn’t understand who Grenell was, he is a nobody in Latin America. She was also cautious, she didn’t know or trust him,’ the diplomat explained, adding that Machado didn’t want to be seen as being used for symbolic purposes.<\/p>\n

Two diplomatic sources and one source familiar at the State Department tell Daily Mail that, ultimately, Rubiobacked by Chief of Staff Susie Wilessuccessfully ‘elbowed’ Grenell out of the Venezuela portfolio entirely, leaving him to watch from the sidelines as Rubio’s hawkish vision was executed.<\/p>\n

But Grenell’s real downfall came long before the plot to seize Maduro, as his ego metastasized during the last campaign.<\/p>\n

Grenell was caught floating himself to campaign aides at Mar-a-Lago to be Trump’s vice presidential nominee, according to one source close to the White House.<\/p>\n

There’s one major player who our sources say was glad to see the back of him – the formidable White House Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles.<\/p>\n

‘Susie hates his f*****g guts,’ a Trump family source told the Daily Mail.<\/p>\n

The impression given inside Trump’s inner orbit was that Grenell could cause the administration headaches due to his overseas dealings.<\/p>\n

Grenell’s circle was nicknamed ‘the misfit toys caucus,’ according to one source.<\/p>\n

In one instance, Grenell reportedly arranged for the Serbian President to fly to Florida for a quiet meeting with Trump in May 2025. The meeting never happened.<\/p>\n

Sources say Wiles personally ‘blocked’ the encounter, leaving the foreign leader in an ‘awkward spot’ and signaling that Grenell’s ‘days of freelancing’ were under intense scrutiny.<\/p>\n

The official explanation from Belgrade was that President Vui had to cut his trip short and return to Serbia after suffering a hypertensive episode.<\/p>\n

Diplomats familiar with the situation explain that Grenell’s goals beyond Serbian-US relations centered around business deals in Serbia done with Jared Kushner.<\/p>\n

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A Trump family source tells the Daily Mail that White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles ‘f*****g hates his guts’<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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During the first Trump administration, Grenell was US ambassador to Germany and acting Director of National Intelligence<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Wiles painted a slightly rosier picture of their relationship, but stopped short of heaping praise on him.<\/p>\n

She told the Daily Mail that there’s no ongoing feud between her and Grenell and that he was effective in Venezuela – albeit at the direction of the President.<\/p>\n

‘You know, he’s not my best friend,’ Wiles said in a phone call Friday morning. ‘We don’t particularly socialize, but this notion that we have some fight, I don’t know it, and I don’t think he feels that way about me.’<\/p>\n

The Daily Mail also asked Wiles whether there were concerns inside the White House that Grenell may have held business interests linked to the Maduro regime while negotiating in Venezuela on the presidents behalf.<\/p>\n

‘You know, I don’t know. I’ve certainly heard those rumors along with everybody else, but I don’t personally know whether he does or whether he doesn’t,’ Wiles responded.<\/p>\n

Grenell insists the pair are on good terms.<\/p>\n

A GOP operator close to the White House also told the Daily Mail that while Grenell did notland a Cabinet post in Trump’s second term<\/a>, running the Kennedy Center is still a ‘big deal.’<\/p>\n

The most significant part of his private business involves his partnership with Kushner’s investment firm, Affinity Partners. Grenell was instrumental in brokering a $500 million luxury hotel and memorial complex in downtown Belgrade.<\/p>\n

The deal involved a 99-year lease with the Serbian government, where Kushner’s firm develops the site, and profits are shared with the Serbian state. Although at this point, it seems the deal may have fallen through.<\/p>\n

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A source close to the Trump family says Wiles mocks Grenell behind his back in the Oval Office<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Diplomatic sources who have worked with Grenell described him as a hot-headed and abrasive to staff<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Affinity Partners did not respond to a Daily Mail request for comment.<\/p>\n

Even while serving as the special presidential envoy, Grenell has also maintained his private firm, Capitol Media Partners, which he sold in 2017.<\/p>\n

Most public wealth-tracking sites estimate his net worth to be in the range of $1 million to $5 million as he continues to earn $100,000 retainer stipends for his private sector work as well as an annual $200,000 in restricted stock options.<\/p>\n

‘You could call him a transactional diplomat,’ a diplomatic source close to Grenell told the Daily Mail.<\/p>\n

However, Grenell’s combative style has left a trail of burned bridges across the diplomatic community.<\/p>\n

‘I would say he’s extremely self-serving and ruthlessly ambitious, and he can be really nasty,’ a veteran diplomat who has known Grenell for decades told the Daily Mail. ‘After his cancer scare, he seemed changed. He became so much more ruthless.’<\/p>\n

Grenell publicly revealed in June 2013 that he had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He underwent an aggressive chemotherapy for months, describing the experience as ‘brutal.’ He was in remission by September that same year and is reportedly in good health.<\/p>\n

In a 2019 interview, he explained his change in perspective, saying, ‘Having this cancer experience has also led me to a more successful career in public service, because I’ve become much more authentic and compassionate… I’m also more willing to take risks both in my personal and public life.’<\/p>\n

That appetite for risk-taking has since manifested as a relentless, often abrasive, drive for the highest offices in the land and a desire to succeed Rubio.<\/p>\n

But that goal now seems far-fetched.<\/p>\n

‘He is bombastic and incredibly sure of himself for reasons that I don’t frankly understand … He was obviously on the wrong side of the administration when it came to Venezuela and Rubio,’ added the former Trump official. ‘His 15 minutes of fame have passed, and that’s why he’s now at Kennedy Center.’<\/p>\n

Grenell’s appointment in February to lead the Kennedy Center came as Trump had designs to find someone willing to help facilitate the name change.<\/p>\n

Now, as head of the storied arts institution, he has found himself mired in controversyfacing accusations of budget cuts, outrage for renaming the building the ‘Trump-Kennedy Center,’ and repeated clashes with prominent artists.<\/p>\n

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The embattled Grenell currently leads the Kennedy Center as a growing number of artists have boycotted the venue<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

A growing number of performers have boycotted the venue, canceling scheduled shows as ticket sales plunge. Grenell has accused CNN and The Washington Post of fueling the backlash and encouraging the artist-led revolt.<\/p>\n

‘Early on in the administration, Rick Grenell was going to be this swashbuckling problem solver who was gonna crisscross the globe, fixing things and that burned out,’ a diplomat who worked with Grenell in Venezuela said. ‘Now he’s reduced to reducing the Kennedy Center.’<\/p>\n

Amid mounting pressure, Grenell has privately told close friends that he plans to leave the Kennedy Center later this year.<\/p>\n

For now, the man who once dreamed of running American intelligence or diplomacy finds himself managing a theaterboth literally and figurativelyas his ambitions collide with the reality of his prickly reputation.<\/p>\n

‘His goal, his ambition, is to be Secretary of State,’ said the veteran diplomat. ‘But I don’t see that happening. Trump knows the negative views a lot of people have of him.’<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Richard Grenell worked years to climb through MAGA’s cut-throat ranks, remarkably scrapping his way into leading the nation’s premiere intelligence apparatus in 2020. Six years later, at the peak of Donald Trump‘s power, he finds himself running a theater – and now even that job is being put on ice. Grenell’s career trajectory took another […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-donald-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}