It is rare to find a senior Trump appointee who has studied at Sciences Po and spent time working in one of the European Union’s institutions.
Jamieson Greer, a hawk on trade who shares Donald Trump’s belief that tariffs can force a rebalancing of the global economic order and return manufacturing jobs to the US, has a curious backstory that spans stints working, proselytising and studying across Brussels, Luxembourg and Paris.
That backstory explains the US trade envoy’s presence at the most unlikely of events in Brussels last Saturday: a ceremony symbolically breaking ground on a new Mormon temple in the Belgian capital.
Greer grew up in a mobile home in Paradise, northern California. “My parents regularly worked several jobs to help make ends meet,” he told his senate confirmation hearing.
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A practising Mormon, he studied at Brigham Young University in Utah, which is affiliated to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
That church connection took him to Europe as a young man. Greer served as a missionary in Belgium, a role Mormon officials told me involves sharing the restored gospel of Jesus Christ “with anyone who becomes interested”.
Though US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick has a greater influence over trade policy and a more direct line to Trump, Greer is still an important figure in the president’s wider orbit, particularly when it comes to tariffs.
Both Lutnick and Greer were in Brussels this week to talk tariffs with EU trade ministers. Over an hour-and-40-minute lunch, the two sides took stock of the deal this summer that saw the EU settle for 15 per cent tariffs on future trade, in return for Trump dropping threats of even higher import taxes.
Greer flew in a few days early to attend a ceremony marking the start of development on a new 25,500sq ft Mormon temple in the heart of Brussels. Tomás Rau, a 10-year-old church member, opened the event with a prayer in French. Greer, who is fluent, would have had no problem following what was said.
Belgium was not the only European country Greer has spent time in. The America First advocate spent a year in 2006 studying international business law at Science Po, a prestigious university in Paris that counts Emmanuel Macron and many other former French presidents among its alumni.
He moved to the French capital with his wife, Marlo, and their first child, Noëlle, was born during their time in Paris.
Giving a speech after receiving a Science Po alumni award in 2022, Greer recalled how the couple nearly missed their window to secure a student visa at the French embassy.
“The one day we could come was July 13th, which is the day before July 14th which is Bastille Day ... You would not be surprised to know that the French embassy consular services division was planning to close early,” he said. “Through sheer luck or something more deliberate, we were the last people to make it through the door of the embassy,” he said.
Afterwards Greer worked in the Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice for a few months in 2007, assisting a Czech judge. Whatever about a senior Trump official having spent time studying or working in Europe in their youth, you surely won’t find many others who have completed traineeships, and thus known as a stagiaire, in an EU institution.
A career in international trade law that followed saw Greer end up as the top aide to Robert Lighthizer, an influential figure who steered Trump’s aggressive trade policy during his first term.
Lighthizer did not land a job in Trump’s new administration. Greer, a protege, was appointed to his old boss’s position, US trade envoy, a role that has seen him go out and sell Trump’s sweeping tariff agenda.
Greer has described tariffs as a “formidable stick” that can be waved above the heads of America’s economic partners, to pressure them into concessions.
In his confirmation hearing he talked about using trade leverage to shore up US military, economic and technological “dominance” for years to come.
Speaking to reporters in Brussels, he reiterated the desire in Washington to “rebalance” the EU-US trading relationship. “We have a common history, we have fought wars together, we should be aligned on economic matters as well,” he said.
In a clear sign the EU’s regulations on Big Tech remain in their crosshairs, Greer called for the union’s regime of digital rules to be “modified” to accommodate the concerns of tech multinationals and the US Government, who have loudly complained they go too far.
Greer’s supposed fond memories of his time in Brussels won’t stop him advising Trump to reach for the stick to get his way, something Europe should be wary about.
