Ric Grenell Says He Will Run for Governor of California on Only One Condition

OXON HILL, Md.—Ric Grenell, former ambassador to Germany and acting director of national intelligence in the first Trump administration, said he might run for governor of California, but only under one condition.

Dasha Burns, the White House bureau chief for Politico, interviewed Grenell on the main stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday.

“While we’re on California, since you have so many ideas for the state, are we going to see Richard Grenell run for governor of California?” Burns asked.

Grenell, who now serves as president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, said he likely won’t run.

“Honestly, it’s not in my plan unless Kamala Harris runs for governor,” he replied.

“I mean, here’s the thing: We already know who she is,” Grenell explained. “We’ve spent hundreds of millions of dollars to define who Kamala Harris is. If she thinks that she’s going to run for governor of California, a Republican is going to win, and I might not be able to resist trying to run against her.”

Grenell, who became the first openly gay Cabinet-level official when he became acting director of national intelligence, had previously been floated as a California gubernatorial candidate. He expressed interest in running in the 2021 recall election against Gov. Gavin Newsom, but he announced he would not do so on July 15 that year.

California has many conservatives, but it is typically considered a deep blue state. Newsom, a Democrat, won reelection in 2022 with 59.2% of the vote, beating his Republican opponent by nearly 20 points.

Celebrating Jesus’ Birth

Grenell now leads the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C.’s arts center. He announced that the Kennedy Center will celebrate Jesus’ birth at Christmastime, and the crowd applauded loudly.

“We are doing a big huge celebration of the birth of Christ at Christmas,” he announced. “How crazy is it to think that we’re going to celebrate Christ at Christmas with a big traditional production to celebrate what we are all celebrating in the world during Christmastime?”

Trump Meeting With Putin

Burns asked Grenell about President Donald Trump’s recent meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Grenell emphasized that while Trump left the world safer as he exited office, former President Joe Biden left his successor a more dangerous world, and Trump has to deal with the world as it is.

“Remember that we handed Joe Biden total peace in the Middle East and total peace in Europe,” he said. “He handed us a war in the Middle East and a war in Europe, and we can never forget that. So, I do get a little bit frustrated with reporters when they say, ‘Your decision now isn’t perfect,’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, we were put in a hole, we were put in a terrible situation.’”

He also insisted that Trump has met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his team up to 10 times. “I never once heard from the media an outrage that the Russians weren’t invited to those talks,” he said. “However, the one time that the Trump team reaches out to say, ‘How about we talk to the Russians?’ there’s this hue and cry from the Europeans and everybody to say, ‘Why aren’t the Ukrainians involved?’”

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