At this point, Gordon Sondland has a rather lengthy resume: rich Portland hotelier, alleged sexual harasser, and eccentric impeachment personality. But as of Friday afternoon, he can no longer include “United States Ambassador to the European Union” on his LinkedIn profile.
According to the New York Times, Donald Trump fired Sondland in an apparent act of revenge for Sondland’s damning testimony during the Congressional impeachment inquiry.
“I was advised today that the president intends to recall me effective immediately as United States Ambassador to the European Union,” Sondland said in a statement shared with the Times. He went on to thank Trump “for having given me the opportunity to serve.”
Sondland was fired just hours after Trump gave the boot to Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman, a Ukraine expert on the National Security Council who is considered a hero of the Iraq war, for his own impeachment testimony.
Sondland infamously donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration committee, and was rewarded with the ambassadorship, apparently a lifelong dream of his. But things got more complicated than Sondland was likely expecting when he got pulled into Trump’s attempt to bribe the president of Ukraine and influence the 2020 election. His colorful impeachment testimony dominated the 24-hour news cycle back in November, and anti-Trump Portlanders protested in front of The Sentinel, his swanky downtown Portland hotel.
Just days after Sondland testified, Portland Monthly dropped a joint investigation with ProPublica in which three former business associates accused Sondland of sexual misconduct.
No one can say for sure what’s next in store for Sondland, but we can say one thing with certainty: For better or (mostly) worse, he’s secured Portland’s historical footnote in the Trump administration.
