MacGregor, contacted Monday, said he expects a confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, but declined to say any more, explaining that the White House has requested that he not speak publicly while under consideration. Given that the presidential elections are only a few months away, MacGregor is unlikely to be confirmed soon.
Macgregor is a regular on Fox News, as are many of Trump’s nominees for major posts. He previously ran for the position of undersecretary of defense for politics, but was ignored by Anthony Tata, a controversial retired army brigadier general who is scheduled to appear before the Senate Armed Services Committee for his confirmation hearing on Thursday.
POLITICO reported in April that Macgregor was applying for the job in Germany, a very important publication with one of the United States’ most important allies.
Relations between Washington and Berlin have deteriorated with Trump, who is determined to reduce the presence of US troops there. If confirmed for the job in Berlin, Macgregor would succeed another divisive figure, Richard Grenell. Grenell’s tough and open style, in which he constantly promoted Trump’s views on America First, alienated many Germans.
That’s especially true when it comes to Trump’s abrupt decision earlier this summer to begin withdrawing nearly a third of the 35,000 US troops stationed in Germany, which influential Democrats and Republicans in Congress oppose.
Fluent in German, Macgregor is steeped in German military and political history. A West Point graduate who earned a Bronze Star for his worth in the 1991 Gulf War, has a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from the University of Viriginia. And he has written extensively on the relationship and struggle between the Soviet Union and Germany.
Daniel Davis, a retired Army lieutenant colonel who has known Macgregor for decades, called his former colleague a good option to advance Trump’s diplomatic agenda.
“Macgregor is fluent in German, lived there for many years and is a great representative of Germany,” Davis, a senior member of the expert group’s defense priorities, said Monday. “Trump has had good instincts about what makes foreign policy good for the United States, but too often his own administration has thwarted his agenda, making it impossible to implement sound policy. That has been especially true regarding Trump’s recently declared desire to attract a reasonable number of US military personnel from Germany. “
Davis added: “Macgregor will be effective in turning Trump’s wish into reality because he can articulate sound logic to do so. Macgregor can help make Trump’s intention to cut Germany’s troops a reality. ”
But he is not known as the most diplomatic. He is revered and vilified by some former officers and analysts as a renegade, who made a career of questioning Army doctrine and for his claim that the military leadership has never been held accountable for its failures in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He also lacks formal diplomatic experience (although the White House announcement points to his participation in the Dayton talks on the future of Kosovo, in which he supported the negotiating team of the late Richard Holbrooke).
However, his supporters insist that Macgregor’s opposition to military fighting abroad, particularly his criticism of the US military strategy in Iraq, is the best evidence of his good judgment over the years, and why he is Perfect for working for Trump, who has prioritized cutting America’s open military commitments in the Middle East.
Since retiring from the Army, MacGregor has written several books and also worked as a defense consultant. His firm, Burke-Macgregor, says that “it develops innovative solutions to achieve national security goals through the achievable transformation of the intransigent status quo.”
