New book: Ex-EU ambassador on why Trump made career diplomats really mad

In his new book, “The Envoy: Mastering the Art of Diplomacy with Trump and the World,” (Bombardier Books), Gordon Sondland discusses his time in the Trump Administration from 2018-2020.

The longtime businessman and hotelier-turned-European Union ambassador has seen the inner workings of international relations, and even testified as a witness in November 2019 in the impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump, stating that Trump had directed him to work with attorney Rudy Giuliani on Ukraine foreign policy. (Sondland was subsequently fired by Trump on Feb. 7, 2020, just two days after the president was acquitted by the Senate.)

The Post sat down with him to chat about modern diplomacy, centrist Republicans, and what readers can expect from his first book:

What sort of international relations insights can readers expect to get from your book?

The status quo doesn’t work. Diplomacy can be a life-changing activity, or the sole objective can be to go through the process and not really have a result. You have a meeting, you sit at a fancy table, there are flags, everyone is nicely dressed, you discuss your talking points, you get up, everyone shakes hands and smiles and you have a toast —and then you get in the car and leave and say, “What did we accomplish?”

In the book, I mention sales and marketing. That’s marketing. We’re not involved in enough sales. Sales is the arm-twisting, the cajoling, and even threatening — not in a militaristic way, but you use your leverage to get what’s best for your country in certain cases. But we don’t do that because it’s uncomfortable, people get cranky with us. While there are some incredibly smart, accomplished and effective people in the career ranks of the State Department, there are unfortunately too many people that are in it for the journey, not the destination. It’s not about actually accomplishing everything.

How did Trump change the world of diplomacy?

Whether you like or don’t like President Trump, he fundamentally changed the way that diplomacy is conducted at the presidential level. He cut out a lot of the process. He would pick up the phone all the time and call a foreign leader and just riff with them the way you “What are you doing? What’s going on? What can we work on together? What can I do for you? And, more importantly, what are you going to do for us?” It really upset the bureaucracy because they didn’t have a role in that — “The president called who? Said what? Why weren’t we involved? Why didn’t we do a briefing on that?” He broke all of the norms, and now I think you’re going to see presidents on both sides of the aisle taking a page from that playbook.

What were your secrets to getting along with Trump and getting stuff done as part of his administration?

First of all, I was honored to serve, and I would have served any president who asked me. I didn’t know President Trump well [before serving]. My body language with him was respectful — because after all he was the president of the United States — but I wasn’t intimidated. He didn’t treat me as the help [but] as a valued volunteer. I told him exactly what was going on. If he got mad at me — and he did many times — it wouldn’t bother me. I’d say, “Look, you’re the boss. If that’s what you want to do, fine. I’m just telling you it’s wrong and it’s not going to work. But, again, it’s your call, not mine.” It always shocked me how many really successful, wealthy volunteers — even military people with four stars on their shoulders — would cower when he walked into a room. I didn’t understand it, because these were tough men and women who knew their stuff and didn’t need their job.

Why did you feel compelled to cooperate with the impeachment hearing, and what was the fallout of that decision?

When I spoke to President Trump at the White House and said the committee wanted me to speak to them, he said, “Go ahead. Just tell the truth.” He didn’t say to call lawyers or not to go. He said, “Tell the truth.” I wasn’t there to help President Trump or to hurt President Trump. I was just there to give the facts as best as I could recall them, supported by emails and memos and calendar entries. And those don’t lie. What happened, happened. What was said was said. Whether it helped or hurt the president, I just had to repeat exactly what I knew truthfully because I was under oath.

As a self-described “Republican who is a sensible centrist,” what’s next for you and people like you?

I’m beginning to see a real fracture, and the conventional wisdom in the Republican Party is that if you don’t have a take-no-prisoners attitude with the Democrats, that all of the things Republicans don’t like about Democrats will quickly overrun the Republican perspective. I think you can have very strong conservative policy and principles and still deploy it in a way that is respectful and that includes the best of what the Democrats have to offer. I’m very much a free market person, I’m very much for strong defense, I’m very much for pulling yourself up by the bootstraps and small government — but I don’t think you have to be an a–hole in order to move those policies forward. I think a lot of Republicans feel that they have no choice, but I don’t buy that.