President Donald Trump’s new designate as ambassador to Germany, Colonel Douglas Macgregor, is a former army tank commander and a frequent guest on Fox News, where he has promoted right-wing conspiracy theories.
The White House announced Monday that Trump was appointing Macgregor to the position of US ambassador to the EU’s largest economy, saying he is “widely recognized as an expert in force design and grand strategy.”
Highlighting his career in diplomatic and military achievement, he notes that “he worked in support of Ambassador Holbrooke’s team during the proximity talks in Dayton, Ohio,” which ended the Bosnian wars of the 1990s, and says “he worked closely with senior military and political leaders of the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany as Chief of Strategic Planning. “
Politgreg describes Macgregor as “beloved by some analysts and former officers because of his questioning of Army orthodoxy,” but “also criticized by some who viewed him as an opportunistic dislike for not being promoted to the rank of general.”
The American conservative describes him as a critic of the establishment in Washington, DC, and a “conservative whose foreign policy views have naturally fitted in with the stated goals of the Trump administration: to come out of endless and futile wars in the Middle East.” home.”
He is a frequent guest on Fox News, which has acted as an informal listening platform for people seeking roles in the Trump administration.
Progressive media monitoring group Media Matters in a report noted that Macgregor has been a frequent guest of Tucker Carlson, one of President Donald Trump’s favorite television presenters, where he has made a number of controversial claims.
In a June 2019 appearance on the Carlson show, Macgregor said Democrats were conspiring to alter the demographics of the US to gain electoral advantage.
“The more people can enter illegally and legally, the better it will be for the Democratic Party,” he said. He concluded that “his goal is to transform the United States into a California facsimile.”
—John Whitehouse (@existentialfish) April 3, 2020
The claim echoes the Great Replacement conspiracy, a far-right dogma that claims, without evidence, that progressives are secretly conspiring to replace white Americans with non-white Americans.
In an appearance on the Lou Dobbs show in December, Macgregor spread allegations about George Soros, the Jewish financier who is a frequent target of conspiracy theories in both the United States and Europe.
He stated that Soros “has financed or helped finance these massive migrations out of Central America” and therefore has “partial responsibility for the massive crime that reaches the United States from Mexico.”
Business Insider has found no evidence to support the claim.
Business Insider has attempted to contact Macgregor to comment on the quote, and the criticism made for his comments on Fox News.
For several months, the embassy in Germany was empty after former ambassador Richard Grennel left in June to return to the United States to serve as Trump’s interim director of national security.
Grennel had proven to be a controversial date, breaking protocol to foster ties with the right-wing populist party AfD.
