Allies of Donald Trump are encouraging the president-elect to make the most of what he described as “an unprecedented and powerful mandate” by nominating a dyed-in-the-wool MAGA diplomat to serve as his secretary of state, rather than an America First convert as he did during his first term.

Enter Richard Grenell.

He is the former U.S. ambassador to Germany, who served previously as the acting director of national intelligence, and whose chief characteristic is an undying devotion to Trump. During the frenetic early days of the presidential transition, a number of names have already been floated, including Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Tennessee Sen. Bill Hagerty. Grenell, a firebrand whose name gives establishment foreign policy circles heartburn, is already lining up support from divergent corners of the GOP.

“He would be a break from precedent in the same way that President Trump’s foreign policy worldviews are a break with precedent,” said Utah Sen. Mike Lee, who has discussed a Grenell nomination with the Trump transition team.

The incoming president and his foreign policy players will soon confront a world on fire. There is a land war in Ukraine, which Trump has promised to end even before taking the oath of office. The president-elect has also vowed to bring peace to the Middle East by bringing the Israel-Gaza conflict to a close. Across the globe, meanwhile, an increasingly aggressive China threatens Western interests.

Dealing with those challenges will begin by naming a top diplomat to take over the State Department, which Lee described in an interview with RealClearPolitics as a bureaucratic “can of worms.” Grenell is particularly suited to that kind of work, added South Carolina Sen.........

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