Richard Grenell ( Richard Grenell/Flickr65)

I’ve written before on how President Donald Trump often picks the worst person for the job. Trump doesn’t select candidates for traditional reasons, such as experience or expertise. He usually picks candidates based on how they’re going to benefit him. In the Trump administration, the president doesn’t make decisions that are going to be good for the country, he makes decisions that are solely good for him.

Having said that Richard Grenell, Trump’s pick to be acting director of National Intelligence, is one of the worst ever.

Here are the reasons:

He has absolutely no experience in intelligence. Grenell is a media specialist who had his own communications agency and served as spokesman for Republican politicians. He has no experience in the military or the intelligence field. And that’s kind of important when you’re expected to coordinate information produced by the nation’s intelligence agencies. I’m not even sure he could pass a background check. However, Trump doesn’t worry about little issues like background checks. First daughter Ivanka and “Vice Roy” Jerod Kushner both flunked their tests but they still get to access classified data. Grenell also worked for Moldovan oligarch Vladimir Plahotniuc, who was banned from the U.S. because of corruption charges.

He wasn’t very good at his last gig. Grennell is currently ambassador to Germany and in the short time he’s been there, he’s already managed to annoy his hosts. Grenell started his post by announcing support for far-right parties — in Germany! (We’re talking about actual neo-Nazis!) In an interview with neo-fascist rag Breitbart, he said he was excited about the growth of Germany’s far-right parties. Apparently, Grennell supported their anti-immigrant rhetoric. So Grenell, who’s gay, was okay with neo-Nazis as long as they hated brown-skinned foreigners. The German authorities weren’t happy about Grenell’s comments or the fact he was violating rules that mean ambassadors are supposed to stay out of local politics.

He’s also a FOX News regular. Trump has been accused of stacking his cabinet with FOX News staffers, since he doesn’t read and FOX News is his main source of information. On FOX, Grenell used his platform to attack Hillary Clinton and journalists. It’s never a good sign when the head of the intelligence agencies is a regular on a network that doesn’t bother to get its facts straight.

Lastly, Grennell is a Trump loyalist. He’s one of those people who believe the president can do no wrong and Russia’s intervention in the 2016 election was a hoax. This is exactly what we don’t need when Russia plans to again interfere in the 2020 election.

Grennell’s appointment is just another attempt to cull the federal government of independent thinkers and staff it with Trump loyalists who will bury the truth and tell the president what he wants to hear. Grennell’s job is to shut down any further reports of Russian intervention and hunt out anti-Trumpers or members of the fictional “Deep State.” However, Intelligence officers supposed to give the president information that protects the safety of the country, not serve as political operatives.

Admiral (rtd.)William McRaven, the man who planned the SEAL team raid that killed Osama Bin Laden, is also horrified at what Trump has done to the intelligence community.

In a Washington Post editorial, he criticized the removal of Vice-Admiral (rtd.) Joseph Maguire, Grennell’s predecessor, and a veteran Navy SEAL. Maguire was apparently dismissed when he reported that the Russians were trying to interfere in the 2020 election. This was something that didn’t fit Trump’s worldview.

“Joe was dismissed for doing his job: overseeing the dissemination of intelligence to elected officials who needed that information to do their jobs,” said McRaven. “As Americans, we should be frightened — deeply afraid for the future of the nation. When good men and women can’t speak the truth, when facts are inconvenient, when integrity and character no longer matter, when presidential ego and self-preservation are more important than national security — then there is nothing left to stop the triumph of evil.”