Foreign officials courted Trump allies at the Republican convention

MILWAUKEE — Top foreign officials courted Donald Trump's allies during the Republican National Convention, scoring face time and last-minute invites — all in order to build relationships if the former president returns to office.

Foreign officials were caught off guard when Trump won the White House in 2016, and they don’t want to find themselves flat-footed again.

“Now, it’s more urgent than ever,” said Daniel Fried, a former ambassador to Poland, who said the outreach has accelerated visibly since the debate last month — something he has encouraged. “It looks more likely that Trump will win. And they don’t want to wait.”

Trump’s "America First" approach to foreign policy and trade is a departure from a Republican Party that had long prioritized sweeping defense budgets and overseas intervention. His policies would also be a sharp break from those of President Joe Biden's administration and also potentially at odds with some of America's European allies.

Trump has warned that if NATO countries, for example, don't meet their NATO treaty defense spending obligations, he would not protect them from Moscow and would let Russia "do whatever the hell they want."

NATO leaders also worry that a Trump presidency could mean a drop in U.S. aid to Ukraine. Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy are set to talk by phone Friday.

The diplomatic outreach was already in full swing early in the week as ambassadors and other foreign officials touched down in Milwaukee.

Politico Playbook reported more than 17 ambassadors were at events in Milwaukee as part of the Republican convention, including from Azerbaijan, Denmark, Greece, Iraq, Norway, Singapore and Ukraine. NBC News also confirmed the attendance of ambassadors from the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Poland, France, Ireland, Israel and the European Union.

The European Union's head of press said that more than 15 ambassadors from the E.U. were at the convention.

Karen Pierce, Britain’s ambassador to the U.S., said that she and her team have spent their evenings gliding among the top-level suites at the convention, mingling with Trump’s allies, senior staff and other prominent Republicans.

The hope is “to learn something more about what would make a Trump administration tick — Trump 2.0,” said Pierce, who presented her credentials to Trump upon her arrival in Washington during his final year in office. Pierce has maintained ties with the former president, traveling with Britain’s then-foreign secretary, David Cameron, to Mar-a-Lago in April, where support for Ukraine was on the agenda.

On social media, former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson gave some insight into what Trump has been up to since arriving Sunday, sharing a smiling side-by-side photograph with the former president, and a vouch of confidence that the former president would stand by Ukraine.

The picture showed Trump’s ear bandaged after a shooter took aim at him Saturday, an attack that, paired with his surge in the polls, has awakened some diplomats to the need to ramp up their engagements with his circle.

A student of American politics who served in the U.S. early in her career and grew up watching the U.S. conventions on British television as a kid, Pierce said her team is investing more resources at the congressional and state levels in governors' offices, and will be on the ground at the Democratic convention next month.

“The rest of the world often misunderstands U.S. politics. They always think America is talking to them when America is talking to itself,” she said.

Later that day, former British Prime Minister Liz Truss passed through security at the stately Pfister Hotel, where inside, under painted murals, Republican operatives and lobbyists milled with hotel guests and the U.S. Secret Service.

Upstairs, Wolfgang Ischinger, head of the Munich Security Conference Foundation and a former German ambassador to the U.S., appealed to a gathering of Republicans and international officials, saying, “We’ve never been more dependent on the U.S.”

Four people in attendance said they wondered whether this was a strong message for a room of Trump allies, including former Trump defense official Elbridge Colby, who is expected to return in a future administration and has telegraphed reduced support for Ukraine and a focus instead on the increasing threat posed by China.

But most of the action was taking place at another hotel on the edge of the convention’s security perimeter.

On Wednesday, Rupert Murdoch, joined by his new bride, sat down for an early dinner at the Trade Hotel on an outdoor terrace overlooking a security checkpoint. Former Trump economic adviser Gary Cohn occupied a high top a few feet away. Roger Stone was at the bar eating a steak. Investor Omeed Malik chatted with friends. A group of British diplomats was also holding court. Lara Trump and other family members passed by the lobby as they made their way to the convention arena.

The scene — all of which occurred over the course of an hour — was reminiscent of the days when Trump’s hotel in Washington became a magnet for his allies and anyone hoping to reach them.

The diplomatic groundswell has become a topic of heated discussion on the convention reception circuit this week as aides grappled with the newfound attention, which has accelerated since President Joe Biden’s faltering debate performance three weeks ago.

“There’s a recognition that they’re not going to make the mistakes of 2016 when they refused to admit that Trump could win,” said Kenneth Weinstein, emeritus president of the Hudson Institute and Trump’s nominee to serve as U.S. ambassador to Japan. “People don’t want to be caught off guard again.”

Before arriving in Milwaukee, he had heard from the ambassadors from Israel, Germany, Korea and Sweden to expect to see them on the ground.

By Tuesday, Weinstein had met with ambassadors from Korea, Canada, Australia and Holland, he said.

“Right now, they’re trying to figure out what Trump’s going to do,” he said.

One senior Republican aide said officials from Poland and Romania had also turned up at events.

Weinstein recalled the scramble that kicked off after Trump’s 2016 election victory when anybody who was seen as close to Trump was suddenly “bombarded with phone calls, emails, meetings, invitations” from Washington’s diplomatic set.

These officials are spending time getting to know former and potential future Trump officials in the backrooms of downtown Milwaukee. They are catching up with old friends. And in quieter moments, some are fretting about what a future Trump administration could mean for their national security.

“They’re crawling all over,” said one senior Republican staffer taken by many of the foreign officials' efforts to score invites and push their way into private GOP events at the convention.

For Ric Grenell, a close adviser to Trump who served as his ambassador to Germany, there are merits to Trump’s at times hard-to-read approach.

“World leaders absolutely are uncomfortable with the unpredictability of Donald Trump,” Grenell said during a Bloomberg News roundtable this week, during his ninth Republican convention. “They don’t know exactly what he’s going to do next and that’s a positive for us, and so they make decisions and react differently knowing, ‘I just can’t figure him out.’”

He recounted a meeting with Angela Merkel, who was the German chancellor at the time, that he said illustrated this point.

“Chancellor Merkel once said to me, ‘The problem with your president is I just can’t figure him out. I don’t know what he’s going to do.’ And I remember thinking to myself, 'Don’t smile too big,'” Grenell said.

At the convention, one European ambassador said allies were struck by the clarity of former GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley’s message and her focus on foreign policy. But this could be a short-lived feeling, the source said. The expectation is that Trump's vice presidential nominee, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, “will undo some of the comfort that some of them may have taken from Nikki Haley,” the ambassador said.

Officials who have taken stock of Trump’s political strength are working overtime to spruce up their ties to the former president and his circles, an effort that, for some, is squarely trained on one party.

Fried, a former assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, said it's also an opportunity to directly challenge “the standard tropes” of Europeans not pulling their weight or taking advantage of the U.S. when it comes to defense and burden sharing.

For those who fear a worst-case scenario if Trump wins a victory in November, Fried said there is evidence to suggest some room for maneuver.

He emphasized that not all of Trump world “will take the hardest, most anti-NATO line in practice,” pointing to the debate against Biden in which Trump took credit for increased European defense spending.

While there may be policy differences, the outreach “is not an empty or futile or forlorn gesture,” Fried said. “I’m not saying it will work, but there is a reasonable basis to think that these kinds of discussions can be held.”

The outreach this week has been broadly welcomed.

“It’s good,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., one of Trump’s closest allies in the Senate, said of the rapidly accelerating courtship happening around him in Milwaukee.

Even as it has taken some by surprise, as when an unexpected guest appeared at the door of Fox Business host Larry Kudlow, an economic adviser to Trump who served as director of the National Economic Council during his first term.

Outside was the European Union ambassador to the U.S., eager to get Kudlow's perspective on how to prepare for a future Trump presidency.

Kudlow could be heard wondering if this was a necessary encounter, according to a source familiar with the interaction.

When asked for comment, a spokesperson for the ambassador said the European Union is seeking a range of input and will also attend the Democratic convention next month.

"We are attending both conventions and meeting a wide range of people to understand what kind of policies the next US administrations might have and to remind them of the importance of our transatlantic partnership," Adriana Brassart said.

There are easier ways to get a sense of Trump’s thinking, some who know him say.

A foreign policy adviser to Trump, Keith Kellogg, said he has one major piece of advice for those trying to get a sense of Trump’s thinking. In recent weeks, Kellogg has been in touch with scores of foreign ambassadors, foreign ministers, defense ministers and national security advisers as they try to get a sense of what the future holds. Now, he is on the ground in Milwaukee, fielding even more requests.

His advice? Pick up the phone.

“If you really want to know what’s on President Trump’s mind, you pick up the phone and you call him. A lot of you haven’t.”