US President Donald Trump has nominated John Coale to take on the role of special envoy to Belarus. His new announcement came in a Sunday (US time) social media post. The 79-year-old American leader attributed his decision to his former lawyer being a crucial figure behind the release of “100 Hostages,” who was “going for an additional 50.”
“He (Coale) has already successfully negotiated the release of 100 hostages, and is going for an additional 50,” Trump said on Truth Social. He then turned to thank the “Highly Respected President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, for his consideration on the release of these additional people.”
US-Belarus relations
The US president was referring to the September release of hostages by his Belarusian counterpart. At the time 52 prisoners, including trade union leaders, journalists and activists, were freed as part of a deal struck between the authoritarian leader and Trump.
The humanitarian progress was made following a meeting with Trump envoy Coale in the capital Minsk. Furthermore, the agreement sought to re-establish a trade relationship, especially in the light of Lukashenko being sanctioned by several countries.
According to Human Rights Watch, the 52 prisoners belonging to the September release efforts joined 14 others released in June (a total of 314 others since July 2023).
Coale is also believed to have told Lukashenko during the September meeting that the US president had ordered the dismissal of sanctions on Belavia, the Belarus state airline, as per Bloomberg’s previous report. As far as the negotiations go, the sanctions were ultimately lifted in November.
Back then, Belarus’ Belta news service had even shared a video that captured Coale handing over a letter from Trump to Lukashenko, and relaying the POTUS’ birthday messages to his international counterpart.
Who is John Coale?
He is currently serving as a deputy special envoy to Ukraine and previously even stepped as one of Trump’s lawyers. In his late 70s, Coale is married to Greta Van Susteren, an American lawyer and journalist who has previously been affiliated with CNN, Fox News and MSNBC.
Following June’s release of prisoners, the Trump lawyer-turned-envoy confessed that he’d done vodka toast with Lukashenko to forge the renewed US-Belarus relationship. “I did two shots, didn’t throw up, but did not do a third one,” he said, as per Politico.
His envoy duties in Belarus kicked off after he received a call from the US State Department in late April. Coale was hit with a special request to meet with Lukashenko. The former Trump lawyer was asked if he could fly out the very next day. Despite his reluctance, Coale had no option but to take the flight.
Coale further divulged that he was tasked to “charm” or “yuck it up with” the Belarusian leader so that ties between the US and Belarus could be strengthened. “
As per his birthday profile on Politico, Coale launched his career as a State’s Attorney in Baltimore in 1973. However, just months later “a very regrettable St Patrick’s Day arrest for DUI” prompted his firing. At the time, he also foregrounded that Lukashenko’s diplomacy wasn’t something he was concerned about, as it was for State Secretary Marco Rubio “to worry about.”
Trump’s ex-lawyer added, “I look at the thing of, can I free some more people. And if it plays into my purpose and what I’m trying to do, I don’t care.”
Sharing a fun fact about himself not many people may know about him, he said in 2017, “In 1979 my around the world sailing trip ended abruptly when my sailboat sunk off the coast of Spain in a storm and I was rescued in my life raft by a Portuguese fishing boat.”
John Coale’s Republican-Democratic back-and-forth: Although now in Trump’s team, Coale was once a major Democratic donor. However, he ultimately switched sides owing to his frustration with “the wok stuff,” as per Kyiv Post’s report. At one point, he even served as an advisor to Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. Thereafter, he turned to support a Democratic presidential candidate in 2016 before he was finally moved by Trump’s politics.
He goes by @johnpcoale on X. According to his Facebook bio, he got his BA in Politics at University at Maryland in 1969, and also studied at University of Maryland, College Park. His schooling years were spent at St Paul’s School and Severn School.
