Grenell: From Diplomat to Demon?
Jake Chansley says Grenell performs satanic sex rituals and drinks blood. He’s Trump-pardoned. So why is Kosovo’s elite still kneeling before this “diplomat”?
LONDON — On the surface, it reads like a social media fever dream. Jake Angeli-Chansley, the so-called “QAnon Shaman” and one of the most recognisable figures from the January 6 Capitol riots, took to X (formerly Twitter) this week with a series of unhinged tirades targeting former U.S. President Donald Trump, Israeli state policy, and, most notably, Richard Grenell, the former diplomat whose reputation has long teetered between influence and infamy.
Chansley’s posts were laced with disturbing references to necrophilia, conspiracy theories, occult rituals, and deeply antisemitic tropes. He accused Grenell, without evidence, of “Babylonian black magick,” “psychic vampirism,” and even “homosexual rituals involving demonic possession.” The language was deranged, the imagery grotesque. Yet, the outburst—dismissed by some as the ravings of a man known for theatrical extremism—raises a deeper and more pressing question: Why is Richard Grenell, a man stripped of his security clearance and discredited in diplomatic circles, still so central in the minds of both radicals and statesmen alike?
Beyond the Fringe: Why This Story Matters
The immediate response from political observers might be to disregard Chansley’s comments entirely, after all, he is no stranger to inflammatory language. But to stop there would be to miss a broader and more troubling trend: Grenell’s name continues to appear not only in the rants of conspiracy theorists but in the centre of real political events in the Balkans and beyond.
Indeed, The Gunpowder Chronicles’ investigative reporting1 over the past five years has charted Grenell’s transformation from Donald Trump’s once-powerful envoy in the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue into an unofficial agitator2 deeply entangled in Balkan politics. From disseminating electoral disinformation in Kosovo to collaborating with figures accused of undermining war crimes tribunals3, Grenell’s post-diplomatic career has raised serious ethical and geopolitical concerns. And yet, figures like Artan Behrami in Kosovo and pro-Serbian elites like Berat Buzhala, continue to amplify his presence, often falsely styling him as “Ambassador4” despite his official irrelevance.
Chansley’s breakdown, then, is less about Grenell per se and more about what Grenell symbolises: the blurring of lines between formal diplomacy, ideological warfare, and influence peddling in an era where information, however deranged, spreads without filter.
The Grenell Dossier: Disinformation, Honour, and a Revoked Clearance
As previously reported, Grenell's reputation has not collapsed in a vacuum. His role in the 2020 ousting of Kosovo’s reformist Prime Minister Albin Kurti was widely condemned by European diplomats and cited in a European Parliament report on disinformation in the Western Balkans5. By leveraging social media posts from Trump allies to threaten U.S. troop withdrawal6, Grenell played a central role in engineering a political crisis, one which culminated in Kurti’s downfall.
His later entanglements are even murkier. Grenell failed to register under the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) despite lobbying for Moldovan oligarch Vladimir Plahotniuc7 and receiving payments from Hungarian state-affiliated entities8. His security clearance was reportedly revoked in 2023, and his name has since been linked to far-right political actors in Europe with ties to Moscow.
In 2023, Serbia awarded Grenell the "Order of the Serbian Flag9" a mere month after a deadly paramilitary assault in northern Kosovo, widely attributed to Serbian state actors10. The optics were troubling: a former U.S. diplomat being honoured by the very regime accused of attempting to annex part of Kosovo in a Crimea-style provocation.
Conspiracies, Real and Imagined
Chansley’s remarks, though bathed in absurdity, oddly reflect a sentiment that now echoes across both political extremes and traditional diplomatic arenas: that something has gone deeply awry in the blurring of power, propaganda, and personal ambition.
His accusation that Grenell “practices mind control” through ancient blood rituals may be fictional, but Grenell has been accused of weaponising narratives to influence political outcomes. The real danger lies not in the fantastical imagery conjured by internet radicals, but in the strategic and documented manipulation of reality by those with platforms and power.
Why We Gave This Story a Platform
At the Gunpowder Chronicles, our editorial mandate is clear: to investigate not just events, but patterns of power and the disinformation that sustains them. This latest eruption of rhetoric around Richard Grenell, though seemingly absurd, is not anomalous. It is part of a troubling continuum in which a discredited figure continues to shape political realities through unofficial backchannels, misleading symbolism, and a reputation inflated by loyalist mythology and media complicity.
We chose to scrutinise this story not because Jake Chansley is a credible source, he is not, but because the very fact that a man once at the centre of a violent insurrection now uses his platform to single out Grenell in conspiratorial terms highlights the extent to which Grenell’s public identity has mutated. He is no longer simply a political figure. He has become a character in a theatre of paranoia, which says as much about the state of public discourse as it does about the man himself.
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