U.S. President-elect Donald Trump announced yesterday, Saturday, his intention to assign another of his loyalists, Richard Grenell, to the nascent post of presidential envoy for “special missions.”

“Rick will work in some of the hottest spots in the world, including Venezuela and North Korea,” Mr. Trump said via Truth Social.

Mr. Grenell, 58, served during the Republican’s first term as US ambassador to Germany, as the president’s special envoy to the Serbia-Kosovo peace talks (2019-2020) and as interim head of the US intelligence coordination body from February to May 2020.

Mr. Trump did not provide further details about the specific tasks he means to assign to Mr. Grenell. The former diplomat was believed to be among the nominees for the State Department job, which was assigned to Marco Rubio, and that of special envoy for the war in Ukraine, which was assigned to retired Gen. Keith Kellogg.

U.S. presidents generally name special envoys for issues they emphasize, or crises they do not believe can be left in the hands of ambassadors.

Mr Trump, who will be sworn in and take office on January 20, 2025, has asserted that he would consider direct negotiations with Kim Jong Un, the North Korean leader, to reduce the risk of conflict. But it is unclear whether Pyongyang, which has completely ignored invitations to unconditional negotiations from the Joe Biden administration over the past four years, disarming to strengthen its nuclear arsenal and tighten relations with Russia, would respond.

The Republicans repeatedly called Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro a “dictator” during the election campaign. Maduro, on the other hand, felt that a change of leadership in the United States could be a “new beginning” in bilateral relations.

In his first term, Donald Trump had moved to impose much tougher sanctions on the Latin American country, particularly in the key oil sector. Mr. Maduro severed bilateral relations in 2019.