Can't wait till this guy is back in Washington

Could be related to why he was never granted a security clearance.  Of course, Trump issued him one anyway.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Once the king, now the kingmaker

They have to get Trump's blessing to run for office now.  He's running the Republican show from Mar-A-Lago.

I wonder how much money they have to send his way to get the blessing.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Jesus wept

It's a shame people would dupe him, he says.  Obviously, the shame is that he's that easily duped.

That's right up there with George W Bush's press secretary Dana Perino not knowing about the Bay of Pigs.  

The latest distraction from the disaster that is the Trump administration

Lord knows there's a new one nearly every day.  This must be what Trump is calling "Obamagate".

Two Republican senators on Wednesday released a declassified list from acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell naming the Obama administration officials who asked to "unmask" the identity of Michael Flynn when he was under government surveillance.

[...]

The names of Americans swept up in wiretaps of foreign officials are generally redacted to prevent any potential for improper domestic surveillance. "Unmasking" requests are routine, but officials must provide a justification for viewing the information — like seeking to better understand the significance of a foreign intercept.

[...]

President Trump's allies have long claimed that the Russia investigation was a political hit job by the Obama administration. The presence of Joe Biden on the list is likely to be weaponized by the Trump campaign as an election-year issue, though the document itself does not show any evidence of wrongdoing.

[...]

The officials named in the list — released by Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) — submitted requests to the National Security Agency between November 2016 and January 2017 to learn the identity of Flynn, who had been referred to in a foreign intelligence report.

[...]

Each request came from "an authorized recipient" of the original intelligence report who received approval through the NSA's "standard process," which includes "a review of the justification for the request."

Among the prominent names listed in the declassified report, along with the date of the first request:

Nov. 30: U.S. Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power
Dec. 2: Director of National Intelligence James Clapper
Dec. 14: CIA Director John Brennan
Dec. 15: FBI Director James Comey
Jan. 12: Vice President Joe Biden

[...]

[T]here's no evidence to suggest that the senior officials on the list acted improperly in requesting to learn Flynn's identity, which would not have been shown in the intelligence report until the unmasking.

  Axios

As if that matters to Trump supporters.

"The officials listed should confirm whether they reviewed this information, why they asked for it and what they did with it, and answer many other questions that have been raised by recent revelations,” Johnson and Grassley said in a statement. "We are making this public because the American people have a right to know what happened."

So now you know.

Not to mention, he lied to Pence, as well as to the FBI, which is supposedly why he was fired from the Trump administration in the first place.  Now, apparently, that doesn't matter.  They want him back in their criminal enterprise for some reason.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

Also...Rand Paul is still an idiot.

Nobody knew who it was until they asked for the name to be "unmasked".  Therefore, they couldn't be doing it "to go after a political opponent."  Imbecile.  The question to ask is:  what did they find out that made them want to know the name of this person? 

UPDATE:

UPDATE:

Turning national intelligence agencies into Trump loyalists

This may be one of the most dangerous things for the nation Trump is doing.

A top intelligence official [Deirdre Walsh] is leaving her post at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the agency announced Friday.

[...]

The news comes the same day as Richard Grenell, the acting director of national intelligence, announced a list of organizational changes. Among the changes announced Friday are a phasing out of ODNI’s Directorate of National Security Partnerships and combining four different ODNI organizations focused on cyber into a single cohort called “the IC Cyber Executive.”

Walsh has garnered allies on Capitol Hill, particularly during her tenure from 2014-18 as the ODNI’s congressional liaison.

ODNI has gone through several rounds of senior departures, including principal deputy director Sue Gordon; former acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire; principal executive Andrew Hallman; general counsel Jason Klitenic; chief of staff Viraj Mirani; and Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson, who was ousted by President Trump.

  The Hill

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Meanwhile

The acting director of the National Counterterrorism Center was removed Wednesday in what insiders fear is a purge by the Trump administration of career professionals at an organization set up after 9/11 to protect the nation from further attacks, according to two former U.S. officials.

Russell E. Travers, a highly regarded intelligence professional with more than 40 years of government service, told colleagues he was fired by acting director of national intelligence Richard Grenell.

[...]

The surprise move came hours after President Trump announced his intent to nominate Pentagon Special Operations and counterterrorism official Christopher Miller to head the center. A deputy director will be named to serve as acting director pending Miller’s confirmation, said a spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

A spokeswoman for Grenell disputed that Travers was fired.

Travers “was offered the opportunity to move to a new role and chose to retire,” Assistant Director of National Intelligence for Strategic Communications Amanda Schoch said in a statement to The Washington Post.

  WaPo

What was the new role? Janitor?

One of the former officials said that Travers walked into a meeting on Wednesday expecting to brief Grenell on the center when he was told that he was out. He had no intention or desire to retire, they said.

In the meeting, Grenell told Travers he would like to know “how long it would take you to leave,” according to one of the former officials, who was briefed on the meeting. Travers replied that he would need “a few weeks” to complete the administrative work, the official recounted.

“They said, ‘Great, we’ll afford you the opportunity to retire,’ ” the former official said.

[...]

Travers, who began his career as a U.S. Army intelligence officer in 1978, took up the acting position last August when the center’s then-director, Joseph Maguire, was tapped to become the acting DNI. Maguire was fired by Trump last month amid a controversy over a briefing given to lawmakers by a subordinate on Russian threats to the 2020 election.

The president then named Grenell, a staunch loyalist, to serve as the acting DNI until a permanent director has been confirmed.

[...]

Grenell and senior adviser Kashyap Patel, also installed last month, are seeking ways to reduce the overall size of the ODNI, according to one former intelligence official. The NCTC is seen as a rich target, and the career officials who have pressed for cuts in the past see an opening, said the former official.

“They see an opportunity now to give the politicals the scalps they want while achieving changes they’ve long sought at the same time,” the former official said.

[...]

In a farewell note to the workforce Wednesday, Travers noted Trump’s plan to bring on Miller, lauded Miller’s experience and said the acting DNI wanted to “assemble a new team.” He sought to boost morale, noting the center’s accomplishments. “We have recently been the subject of an external evaluation by a group of national security luminaries that strongly validated the need for the center,” he wrote. “And most importantly, we have you — the finest workforce with whom I have ever been associated. I have no doubt that the center is postured for success going forward.”

If only we could all share his optimism.

“There’s not a lot of love for NCTC at the CIA, given the professionals in CIA’s own counterterrorism mission center have the operational and analytic expertise in this area,” said Marc Polymeropoulos, a former CIA counterterrorism official, who said he does not see the NCTC shake-up as an attack on the intelligence community, but rather a natural downsizing that was long overdue.

Yet one of the center’s strengths, officials say, is its ability to integrate information from domestic and foreign intelligence sources without running afoul of privacy laws.

But who cares about that these days?

Sending CIA and other analysts back to their home agencies may reduce the center’s numbers, but “you can’t take all those NCTC authorities and put them back at the CIA,” said one of the former officials. “We don’t send domestic information to a foreign intelligence agency. That’s the system we have to protect against abuse of surveillance authorities.”

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Richard Grenell - there's more

There always is.

President Donald Trump’s new acting intelligence director, Richard Grenell, used to do consulting work on behalf of an Eastern European oligarch who is now a fugitive and was recently barred from entering the U.S. under anti-corruption sanctions imposed last month by the State Department.

In 2016, Grenell wrote several articles defending the oligarch, a Moldovan politician named Vladimir Plahotniuc, but did not disclose that he was being paid, according to records and interviews. Grenell also did not register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which generally requires people to disclose work in the U.S. on behalf of foreign politicians.

FARA is the same law that Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort and former deputy campaign manager Rick Gates were convicted of violating. (Manafort went to trial. Gates pleaded guilty.)

[...]

“There is real reason to believe that Mr. Grenell should have registered here,” Sanderson said after ProPublica described the circumstances to him. “This is exactly the type of circumstances I’d expect the Department of Justice to investigate further.”

  ProPublica

Not this time.

Besides, his lawyer says he's innocent.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Oh, dear god

This is the acting director of national intelligence.  He obviously has none himself.

He thinks our embassies should be commerce centers.  No need for politics.  No wonder they don't like him in Germany.

He gives interviews in sweats, track shoes with no socks.  I'm glad he's so relaxed.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:  There's more.  (There always is.)

Exactly as we thought

How Trump found out about the Russia interference briefing....

Trump learned about Pierson’s remarks from Rep. Devin Nunes (Calif.), the committee’s ranking Republican and a staunch Trump ally, said one person familiar with the matter. Trump’s suspicions of the intelligence community have often been fueled by Nunes, who was with the president in California on Wednesday when he announced on Twitter that Grenell would become the acting director, officials said.

[...]

Trump angrily asked Maguire why he had to learn of what Pierson had said from Nunes and not from his own aides, according to administration officials with knowledge of the meeting. He said that Maguire should not have let the Capitol Hill briefing happen — particularly before he received the briefing — and that he should not have learned about it from a congressman, said one administration official.

  WaPo

That's true, but he has only himself to thank for his aides not being willing to bring him news they know he'll take badly. So his aides don't get fired, but the DNI director does.

By contrast, Grenell appears to be an ideal Trump appointee. The president appreciates that he publicly bashes Germany over policy disagreements. Grenell also defends the president on Fox News and on Twitter, and when he visits the White House for meetings, Trump usually wants to see him, current and former administration officials say.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Will this be Trump's eventual pick for permanent DNI?

Or will he just keep Grenell as acting DNI so he doesn't have to answer to Congress?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

More on the ODNI briefing fallout

“The Republicans [on the committee] went nuts,” over Pierson’s presentation, the member told The Daily Beast. A second source familiar with the briefing said that Republicans didn’t understand why the Kremlin would try to boost Trump, since he had been so tough on Russia, in their view. Reps. Brad Wenstrup (R-OH), Will Hurd (R-TX) and Chris Stewart (R-UT)—who according to The Times, has been a Trump favorite to replace Maguire—were particularly vocal in their skepticism, the member said.

[...]

Word of the meeting trickled back to the White House. And in the wake of the briefing, Trump forced out Maguire, whose tenure was set to expire next month. Other major changes are soon to follow. According to several sources, including one former high ranking intelligence official, the DNI’S Principal Executive Andrew Hallman is departing, as is the ODNI’s General Counsel Jason Klitenic. Hallman is returning to the CIA, sources said.

[...]

“Hallman, who is a legend and one of the most honest and truthful and experienced and acknowledged persons in the entire intelligence community system,” said the official, who is in a position to know the coordinating of the effort throughout the intelligence community. “Andrew Hallman is a national treasure.”

[...]

The news of [Richard] Grenell’s forthcoming appointment had been circulated inside the walls of the White House for several days before the official announcement. Grenell was alerted to Trump’s final decision earlier in the week. Still, the announcement came as a surprise to current and former ODNI officials who said they were concerned about Grenell taking over the helm as acting director given his lack of experience in intelligence. One former senior intelligence official said Trump’s decision to tap Grenell was “disrespectful to the intelligence community.”

  Daily Beast

Which is why Trump appointed him.

Our national security intelligence from here on will be whatever Trump says it is

“It’s an essential role. And it calls for someone who can gather unbiased intelligence,” the former official said. “The ambassador was basically shut out of every meeting he had in Germany. He wasn’t respected by anyone. Perhaps he doesn’t understand the role … the importance of establishing intelligence relationships. It requires the person to gather true, unbiased facts of how foreign leaders think.”

[...]

“The president said he didn’t want any more briefings like this,” the former official said. “This is four years of this. We took an oath of office, so help me God. That oath did not include it is okay to lie to the president to make him feel better.”

[...]

“Isn’t that absolutely incredible? Predictable but incredible,” former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said in a phone interview that had been scheduled to discuss the impending Nevada Democratic caucus. “They are doing it again and I don't know if we have the tools to stop it.”

Great.

It will only get worse: What Pierson briefed

Intelligence officials warned House lawmakers last week that Russia was interfering in the 2020 campaign to try to get President Trump re-elected, five people familiar with the matter said, a disclosure to Congress that angered Mr. Trump, who complained that Democrats would use it against him.

The day after the Feb. 13 briefing to lawmakers, Mr. Trump berated Joseph Maguire, the outgoing acting director of national intelligence, for allowing it to take place. [...] Mr. Trump cited the presence in the briefing of Representative Adam B. Schiff, the California Democrat who led the impeachment proceedings against him, as a particular irritant.

During the briefing to the House Intelligence Committee, Mr. Trump’s allies challenged the conclusions, arguing that he has been tough on Russia and strengthened European security.

[...]

[The inteligence officer who presented the information,] Shelby Pierson, is an aide to Mr. Maguire who has a reputation of delivering intelligence in somewhat blunt terms.

[...]

[T]wo administration officials said the timing [of MaGuire's replacement] was coincidental. Mr. Grenell had been in discussions with the administration about taking on new roles, they said, and Mr. Trump had never felt a kinship with Mr. Maguire.

  NYT

It was coincidental. Sure. We're that stupid.

After asking about the briefing that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and other agencies gave to the House, Mr. Trump complained that Mr. Schiff would “weaponize” the intelligence about Russia’s support for him, according to a person familiar with the briefing. And he was angry that no one had told him sooner about the briefing, the person said.

Maybe some more people need to be fired?

Ms. Pierson, officials said, was delivering the conclusion of multiple intelligence agencies, not her own opinion.

She'll be finding herself on the chopping block no matter.

At the House briefing, Representative Chris Stewart, a Utah Republican who has been considered for the director’s post, was among the Republicans who challenged the conclusion about Russia’s support for the president.

[...]

Mr. Stewart declined to discuss the briefing but said that Moscow had no reason to support Mr. Trump. He pointed to the president’s work to confront Iran, a Russian ally, and encourage European energy independence from Moscow. “I’d challenge anyone to give me a real-world argument where Putin would rather have President Trump and not Bernie Sanders,” the nominal Democratic primary front-runner, Mr. Stewart said in an interview.

How about this one: Putin can manipulate Trump, and not Sanders.

Though intelligence officials have previously informed lawmakers that Russia’s interference campaign was ongoing, last week’s briefing did contain what appeared to be new information, including that Russia intends to interfere with the ongoing Democratic primaries as well as the general election.

[...]

While Republicans have long been critical of the Obama administration for not doing enough to track and deter Russian interference in 2016, current and former intelligence officials said the party is at risk of making a similar mistake now. Mr. Trump has been reluctant to even hear about election interference, and Republicans dislike discussing it publicly.

[...]

Both Republicans and Democrats asked the intelligence agencies to hand over the underlying material that prompted their conclusion that Russia again is favoring Mr. Trump’s election.

How soon the House committee might get that information is not clear.

After November.

The aftermath of last week’s briefing prompted some intelligence officials to voice concerns that the White House will dismantle a key election security effort by Dan Coats, the former director of national intelligence: the establishment of an election interference czar. Ms. Pierson has held the post since last summer.

She won't have it much longer.

UPDATE:

UPDATE: More

It will only get worse

President Trump erupted at his acting director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire, in the Oval Office last week over what he perceived as disloyalty by Maguire’s staff, which ruined Maguire’s chances of becoming the permanent intelligence chief, according to people familiar with the matter.

[...]

Maguire had been considered a leading candidate to be nominated for the post of DNI, White House aides had said. But Trump’s opinion shifted last week when he heard from a GOP ally that the intelligence official in charge of election security, who works for Maguire, gave a classified briefing last Thursday to the House Intelligence Committee on 2020 election security.

  WaPo

Unfuckingbelievable.

Pierson, who coordinates the intelligence community’s efforts to gather information on foreign threats to U.S. elections, spoke at a briefing held for the full committee on “election security and foreign interference in the run-up to the 2020 election,” said a committee official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail closed-door proceedings.

[...]

It is unclear what the official, Shelby Pierson, specifically said at the briefing that angered Trump, but the president erroneously believed that she had given information exclusively to Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), the committee chairman, and that the information would be helpful to Democrats if it were released. publicly.

[...]

“There was a dressing down” of Maguire, said one individual, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter. “That was the catalyst” that led to the sidelining of Maguire in favor of Grenell, the person said.

[...]

“Members on both sides participated, including ranking member [Devin] Nunes, and heard the exact same briefing from experts across the intelligence community,” the committee official said. “No special or separate briefing was provided to one side or to any single member, including the chairman.”

I'd say Nunes was the one who told Trump about it, but that wouldn't explain how Trump got the idea she only told Schiff. That part of the story, I'm willing to bet, is bullshit.

The president has been focused lately on officials who are allegedly disloyal to him, particularly at the Justice Department, the National Security Council, the Pentagon and the State Department, aides said, and has heard from outside advisers that “real MAGA people can’t get jobs in the administration.”

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:  The information Pierson provided.

UPDATE 2/21:  Yep, it was Nunes.

What happens when you're limited to sleazebags and sycophants?

They have to double-up, triple-up, and more, on the jobs they do.

President Donald Trump announced that Richard Grenell, the U.S. ambassador to Germany, will become acting director of national intelligence, a move that puts a staunch Trump ally in charge of the nation’s 17 spy agencies, which the president has only tepidly embraced.

[...]

Grenell follows Joseph Maguire, who has been acting national intelligence director since August. It was unclear if Maguire would return to the National Counterterrorism Center.

[...]

Grenell, a loyal and outspoken Trump supporter, becomes the first openly gay member of Trump’s Cabinet. He has been the U.S. ambassador to Germany since 2018. He previously served as U.S. spokesman at the United Nations in the George W. Bush administration, including under then-Ambassador John Bolton.

[...]

Trump named Grenell acting national intelligence director, meaning he would not have to be confirmed by the Senate.

Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Trump had “selected an individual without any intelligence experience to serve as the leader of the nation’s intelligence community in an acting capacity.”

  Denver Post

I'm sure we can expect Mr. Grenell to do just as good a job at Intel as he's done as ambassador to Germany.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Germany isn't happy with our ambassador

Wolfgang Kubicki, deputy chairman of [Germany's] Free Democratic Party, said Grenell repeatedly "interfering" with Germany's sovereignty should be enough for Foreign Minister Heiko Maas to remove him, German broadcaster Deutsche Welle reported.

[...]

Kubicki's comments come after Grenell called Germany's spending on NATO insufficient earlier Tuesday.

Grenell has been a controversial figure in Germany. He was previously criticized for demanding that Berlin stop the creation of Nord Stream 2, a gas pipeline from Russia to Germany, and threatening firms involved in the project with sanctions.

He also found himself at the center of a firestorm after giving an interview to right-leaning Breitbart News in June 2018, in which he said he wanted to “empower other conservatives throughout Europe.”

[...]

[A] top lawmaker from Chancellor Angela Merkel's party said he was at risk of becoming a “highly ineffective” envoy and a cadre of left-leaning politicians demanded that his credentials be withdrawn.

Carsten Schneider, caucus manager of the Social Democrats within the Parliament, called the ambassador a "complete diplomatic failure."

[...]

A spokesperson for the State Department told The Hill that German politicians are free to express their opinions about Grenell.

“Germany, like the United States, is a free country with a free press. Politicians, pundits, and the media are entitled to share their opinions as part of the political process. That is one of the fantastic and unifying qualities of U.S. and German society,” they said.

“Ambassador Grenell is the president’s personal representative to Germany. He’s there to represent the United States.”

  The Hill

We don't care if they like him. It doesn't matter if he's not effective because of it. We only care that he continue to spread our right-wing, white supremacist agenda throughout Europe. Steve Bannon and Sebastian Gorka can't do it all on their own.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

What will the base think?

The Trump administration is launching a global campaign to end the criminalization of homosexuality in dozens of nations where it's still illegal to be gay, U.S. officials tell NBC News, a bid aimed in part at denouncing Iran over its human rights record.

[...]

Narrowly focused on criminalization, rather than broader LGBT issues like same-sex marriage, the campaign was conceived partly in response to the recent reported execution by hanging of a young gay man in Iran, the Trump administration’s top geopolitical foe.

  NBC

Partly? Or wholly, for political purposes against Iran?

But we'll take it.

On the other hand, what about the transgender ban in the military? Is the base now supposed to accept gays and turn their sexually repressed hatred and ire against transgenders? Or can it be slaked temporarily by oppressing brown-skinned people?

Trump, after being elected, also said he was “fine” with same-sex marriage. But since he took office, his administration has scaled back some workplace protections for gay people and has argued in court that a federal anti-discrimination law doesn’t protect gay employees. He has also announced a ban on transgender people serving openly in the U.S. military, which the Supreme Court last month said could be implemented even as lower-court challenges play out.

[...]

U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, the highest-profile openly gay person in the Trump administration, is leading the effort, which kicks off Tuesday evening in Berlin. The U.S. embassy is flying in LGBT activists from across Europe for a strategy dinner to plan to push for decriminalization in places that still outlaw homosexuality — mostly concentrated in the Middle East, Africa and the Caribbean.

You think Trump will post any tweets on the subject? Me neither.

And it's likely going to be a problem with another group:

Yet by using gay rights as a cudgel against Iran, the Trump administration risks exposing close U.S. allies who are also vulnerable on the issue and creating a new tension point with the one region where Trump has managed to strengthen U.S. ties: the Arab world. In Saudi Arabia, whose monarchy Trump has staunchly defended in the face of human rights allegations, homosexuality can be punishable by death, according to a 2017 worldwide report from the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA).

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 2/21:

He didn't post any tweets perhaps because he didn't know about it.




Will he put an end to the project?

What happens when you dump career diplomats for idealogues?

German politicians have criticised Donald Trump’s new ambassador to Germany after he said he wanted to “empower” anti-establishment rightwing forces throughout Europe.

In an interview with the far-right news outlet Breitbart over the weekend, Richard Grenell, who has been in office for less than a month, said: “I absolutely want to empower other conservatives throughout Europe, other leaders.

[...]

In Berlin, the foreign ministry asked him to clarify the comments and politicians criticised him for a perceived breach of diplomatic protocol.

“In the past, Germany was fortunate to have had great US ambassadors who built bridges and did not do party politics,” said Metin Hakverdi‪, a Social Democrat delegate and member of the German-US parliamentary friendship group.

“As a member of the SPD, a left party with a long proud legacy of fighting, together with the United States, both Nazis and communists, I am irritated to hear from Ambassador Grenell about our allegedly failed policies.

“US Senator Chris Murphy said rightly that ambassadors are not supposed to ‘empower’ political parties. Ambassador Grenell is new on his post and I hope this irritation will not be repeated.”

  The Guardian

Well, the cat's out of the bag now. You can't put the toothpaste back in the tube.

Omid Nouripour, a Green MP and deputy chair of the German-US parliamentary friendship group, said: “ [...] At least the Russians make an effort not to be seen to be meddling in other countries’ affairs.”

[...]

A spokesperson for the German foreign ministry said on Monday that the government had asked Breitbart to confirm the authenticity of Grenell’s comments and that the US ambassador would be expected to “explain what he meant” during his first official visit to the foreign ministry on Thursday.

It's obvious what he meant. Perhaps what's lacking is a step-by-step instructional plan of how he intends to carry out his claim.

While the use of political appointees – candidates with little or no foreign or diplomatic experience to be an ambassador – is more common in America than in other countries, ambassadors tend to subscribe to an unwritten code of conduct according to which they must remain politically neutral.

[...]

In his Breitbart interview, Grenell did not voice support for the rightwing populist party Alternative für Deutschland, which has been a vocal critic of Merkel’s refugee policies and is the largest opposition group in the Bundestag.

Not specifically by name, maybe.

[H]e did express admiration for the Austrian chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, whose conservative Austrian People’s party governs in a coalition with the far-right FPÖ. “Look, I think Sebastian Kurz is a rock star,” he said. “I’m a big fan.”