Ric Grenell to Newsmax TV: Use Embassies to Boost US Economy

America's embassies are the most underutilized asset in the nation's foreign policy arsenal and should be used to direct foreign investment for jobs and to highlight products from the United States, former U.S. Ambassador to Germany Ric Grenell told Newsmax TV on Tuesday. 

"This is such an important topic, and I think it's largely ignored, but boy does it really matter to the American people," Grenell told "Spicer & Co." in an interview following up an opinion piece he wrote for The Hill, outlining his plans to rethink how embassies and diplomatic outposts are used.

The Foreign Service, he said, wants to be able to work for the American people in a "very relevant way," and people who join are smart Americans who want to work for their country. 

"You want to help, do it overseas, and so we attract some smartest people and some of the best people who give of their time," Grenell said. "And they evaluate the country's political dynamics. This is something that's really old. We can get this information from the Internet. Instead, what we need to do is really think about the economy."

For that to happen, the United States needs ambassadors who are "really smart, from different industries, who can come in and train and help the Foreign Service think differently and really expand the American presence overseas," said Grenell, who is now is a senior adviser on LGBT outreach to the Republican National Committee after having also served briefly as acting director of national intelligence. 

The job of the embassy teams, he added, is to push American policy while helping to further create American Jobs and help the economy.

Meanwhile, Grenell discussed his Republican National Convention speech, and noted President Donald Trump has made foreign policy a great issue to vote about. 

"Our foreign policy should be designed to make America stronger," Grenell said. "We're not here to write checks to make others stronger. We are here to [offer] foreign aid through multilateral institutions, through all of our foreign policy, to make America stronger and to make the American people safer."

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