| Armand Cucciniello | |
| Birth Date: | December 7, 1979 |
| Nationality: | American |
| Education: | Boston University (BA) Syracuse University (MA) |
| Occupation: | Writer, former diplomat |
Armand V. Cucciniello III (born December 7, 1979) is a former American diplomat,[1] news reporter, military advisor, political commentator, and public relations executive.[2] Cucciniello was formerly spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Iraq.[3]
Cucciniello is a graduate of Boston University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 2002. He later earned an M.A. from Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.[2] Cucciniello is also a graduate of the National War College at National Defense University, where he concentrated in Cyber Studies and Influence Warfare.[4]
In 2006, Cucciniello moved to Baghdad, Iraq to work for Multi-National Force-Iraq (MNF-I). Shortly after, he was hired by the U.S. Department of State to work in the Public Affairs Section at the U.S. embassy, located in the former Republican Palace (Arabic: القصر الجمهوري al-Qaṣr al-Ǧumhūriy) of Saddam Hussein. As such, Cucciniello was made a non-career U.S. diplomat and became a spokesperson for the U.S. embassy until 2010.[5] He subsequently served in Islamabad, Pakistan, and later worked for the United Nations Command, Combined Forces Command and United States Forces Korea in South Korea.[6] Cucciniello was vice president of Blue Force Communications, a public relations agency with offices in New York City and Washington, D.C.
In a 2016 article for USA Today, Cucciniello was the first person to describe then-U.S. presidential candidate Donald J. Trump's foreign policy as "America First," a moniker subsequently used by New York Times reporters David E. Sanger and Maggie Haberman in their interview with Trump who, "agreed with a suggestion that his ideas might be summed up as 'America First'."[7] The phrase became a cornerstone of Trump's campaign platform, and later that of the Trump Administration.[8] After Rex Tillerson was announced as Trump's nominee for United States Secretary of State, Cucciniello argued that Tillerson could perform well in the role given his depth of business experience.[9] While a student at National Defense University, Cucciniello wrote about and published essays on state-sponsored Chinese influence[10] and Russian propaganda.