The Senate confirmed Richard Grenell as President Trump’s ambassador to Germany on Thursday, in a 56-42 vote. Grenell steps into a position that has been vacant since 2017, when Trump fired ambassadors appointed by Barack Obama. A Republican, Grenell worked with Trump’s new national security adviser, John Bolton, at the United Nations, and was reportedly considered for the position of US ambassador to the UN before Nikki Haley got the job. Grenell’s appointment was delayed as Democrats raised concerns about statements Grenell made in the past on Twitter, particularly about women. A spokeswoman for Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) told CNN on Monday that Grenell had a "significant history of making misogynistic and other incendiary statements online." In his rich history of humorous and off-color tweets, Grenell implied than MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow looked like Justin Bieber; suggested that Newt Gingrich’s wife Callista wears “clip-on hair” and called NBC’s “Meet the Press” “a commercial for the Democratic Party & its radical feminist agenda.”Grenell’s appointment comes just one day before German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives in Washington on Friday. Merkel is expected to cover much of the same ground with Trump as French President Emmanuel Macron did in recent days; namely the Iran deal and EU-US trade. Grenell is openly gay, and has been supported throughout his career by Stuart Milk, nephew of gay rights leader Harvey Milk.