With impeachment in the past, Trump’s purge days are well underway. But the appointment of Richard Grenell to temporarily serve as the nation’s top intelligence official has in particular been a source of consternation within diplomatic and intelligence circles. Large parts of the diplomatic world think Grenell is underqualified and almost comically partisan, and his elevation is seen as a harbinger of a supercharged Trumpian era where loyalty matters above everything else.

“This is clearly, unambiguously the politicization of intelligence. Trump doesn’t want information out; he doesn’t want facts. Ric Grenell is now his guardian against fact. That is basically what this amounts to,” a former administration official told me. “Ric Grenell is basically like the bumper guards at the bowling alley that you put up for kids so that they can hit some pins, that is what he is like for Trump.”

While initially tacking toward the establishment in the 2016 election, Grenell pivoted masterfully as it became increasingly clear Trump would secure the Republican nomination. He emerged as one of Trump’s most vociferous defenders and landed the coveted role of U.S. ambassador to Germany. “I give Ric a lot of credit for this, he’s an opportunist. He knew perfectly well that in order to survive in Trumpworld, you had to be a loyalist,” Mark Groombridge, a former aide to John Bolton who worked closely with Grenell at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, told me. “Everyone had to make a decision about whether you become a sycophant for Trump or you stand your ground. Ric made his decision and he’s now in a bed.”

Cozying up to the Trumps has certainly benefited Grenell professionally. In addition to his ambassadorial duties, Grenell—the highest-ranking openly gay person in the government—has taken the reins on the Trump administration’s effort to decriminalize homosexuality worldwide, and Trump tapped him to serve as special envoy for Serbia-Kosovo peace talks. And then, in a surprising twist last week, the president named Grenell as the acting director of national intelligence, a position he can hold for 210 days under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act.

The appointment of Grenell, who supplanted intelligence veteran Joseph Maguire, was roundly slammed as the overt politicization of the intelligence apparatus. “Grenell is clearly a dedicated member of Team Trump. His lack of experience in intelligence and very mixed review as a diplomat make very clear that he is being picked because the president wants a person of confidence, not someone with strong experience. In previous administrations, such an appointment—even if temporary—would be viewed as shocking. In the Trump administration much less so because the president has been crystal clear that he values loyalty above all,” a former high-ranking State Department official told me. “When you create a government that offers the leadership only what the leadership wants to hear, you risk creating one-sided policies that do not reflect the actual situation.”

Indeed, while Grenell has drawn some praise for his efforts to boost international support for the LGBTQ community, his reputation as a fierce partisan precedes him, dating back to his tenure as spokesperson for the United States Mission at the United Nations under the George W. Bush administration. A former government official who has interacted with Grenell said he had a reputation of being a “political hack” who was “kind of a Trump-y conservative before it was cool. He definitely had that style.” Another diplomatic source familiar with Grenell’s reputation said the joke at the U.S. mission in New York is “Ric Grenell, the P is silent.” And Richard Gowan, a senior fellow at the United Nations University, told me that U.N. officials “still talk of Grenell with a slight frisson of fear” and that “he was definitely seen as [John] Bolton’s right-hand man at the U.N. Ever since Trump’s election there have been rumors that he might eventually come to New York as U.N. ambassador. U.N. insiders will be delighted that he is going to Washington instead.”