President-elect Donald Trump named Richard Grenell, his former ambassador to Germany and former acting director of national intelligence, as his “envoy for special missions,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform Saturday.

A loyalist known for unbridled social media attacks on Trump’s perceived critics and many others, Grenell led a shambolic effort to challenge the 2020 election results in Nevada after Trump’s loss, and he has lobbied assiduously for a diplomatic job in the new administration.

He got his start in government before Trump’s rise, as a spokesperson for the U.S. mission to the United Nations under multiple presidents. But his online toxicity, foreign business contacts and tendency toward biting personal attacks on political opponents and the media turned off many centrist conservatives, helping propel him toward Trump, a man he denounced in 2016 as “dangerous.”

“Ric will continue to fight for Peace through Strength, and always put AMERICA FIRST,” Trump wrote in his announcement.

Grenell did not immediately reply to a texted question about his priorities for the role, which does not currently exist. Trump outlined it as: “Ric will work in some of the hottest spots around the World, including Venezuela and North Korea.”

The role is a far cry from secretary of state, the job Grenell coveted, but to which Trump plans to appoint Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. Being named for a lower-profile White House envoy job could help Grenell avoid persistent questions about his paid work for foreign clients, including luxury hotel development projects he has pursued in the Balkans with Jared Kushner, the president-elect’s son-in-law.

Since 2023, special envoys have required Senate confirmation if they met a specific standard set out in U.S. law, but it is unclear whether Trump and a Republican-controlled Senate would decide that Grenell’s position required confirmation.

During the first Trump administration, Grenell was ambassador to Germany. His abrasiveness and partisanship alarmed diplomats on both sides of the Atlantic, particularly after he told Breitbart London that he planned to “empower” German conservatives opposing “the failed policies of the left.”

In 2020, Trump named Grenell to temporarily replace the acting director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire, whom Trump had fired.

During about three months in the post, Grenell worked with his friend Kash Patel — another loyalist who is now Trump’s pick to lead the FBI — to purge top officials and oversee a wave of document declassifications aimed at discrediting the U.S. intelligence community’s assessment of Russia’s pro-Trump machinations in the 2016 presidential campaign.

Trump did not give the permanent director role to Grenell, who would have faced questions during the Senate confirmation process about his years of communications work on behalf of foreign clients, including Hungary, Congo, Kenya and Iran. Instead, Trump appointed John Ratcliffe, a lower-key former Republican congressman who is now Trump’s choice for CIA director.