Donald Trump has been ridiculed for claiming his “envoy ambassador” Ric Grenell is helping to defuse tensions between Serbia and Kosovo.
Mr Trump released a statement on Thursday to say Mr Grenell, a former ambassador to Germany, had visited the border between the two countries on his behalf.
“The agreements my administration brokered are historic and should not be abandoned, many lives are at stake,” the statement said.
In a statement, the White House shot down Mr Trump’s attempted diplomacy.
“Outside of his very active imagination, Donald Trump is no longer President and doesn’t have any ‘envoy ambassadors’ representing the United States.”
The statement was met with some surprise that Mr Trump appeared to be conducting a shadow foreign policy agenda.
Others thought his statement may have been confusingly worded.
“As a connoisseur of Trumptalk, I can report that Trump is not saying Grenell is his ‘envoy ambassador’, but is instead referring to “my envoy, Amb. Ric Grenell” in his own idiosyncratic way,” Washington Post reporter Philip Bump said.
Mr Grenell served as the Trump administration’s ambassador to Germany from 2018 to 2020 before becoming the Special Presidential Envoy for Serbia and Kosovo Peace Negotiations.
The position was abolished after Mr Trump lost the 2020 presidential election.
Prior to his appointments Mr Grenell was a political operative who was known for trolling opponents on Twitter.
