The administration of US President Donald Trump has appointed to serve as the top public diplomacy official a former speech writer for Trump with a history of doubts over US foreign policy toward Taiwan and inflammatory comments on women and minorities, at one point saying that "competent white men must be in charge."
Darren Beattie has been named the acting undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, a senior US Department of State official said, a role that determines the tone of the US' public messaging in the world.
Photo: Bloomberg
Beattie requires US Senate confirmation to serve on a permanent basis.
"Thanks to President Trump’s miraculous victory, we have entered the beginning of a new Golden Age—of success, prosperity, legitimacy, and accountability. I have been given the great honor of serving once again in Trump’s administration, this time in the Department of State," Beattie said on X in a statement posted by Revolver News, a right-wing media outlet that he founded which regularly promotes conspiracy theories.
Beattie's earlier social media posts have come under the spotlight, prompting a warning from Jewish advocacy group Anti-Defamation League that said he "has no place in a role representing American values abroad."
"Throughout the years, Beattie has participated in several conversations and events organized by notorious racists, antisemites and white supremacists and has continuously promoted an array of conspiracy theories, including those related to the Jan. 6 insurrection and the 'Great Replacement' theory, embraced by antisemites and white supremacists," the league said.
Beattie did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Beattie was terminated as a speech writer for Trump after the Washington Post in 2018 reported that he had spoken at a conference attended by well-known white nationalists.
Posts by Beattie on X have advocated for white men being in charge and questioned US policy toward Taiwan.
In a post in October last year, Beattie wrote that the US' national ideology is based on "coddling the feelings of women and minorities, and demoralizing competent white men," and that "competent white men must be in charge if you want things to work."
He questioned US policy toward Taiwan, saying that the nation was "inevitably" going to belong to China, and that it was "not worth expending any capital to prevent."
In July last year, he wrote that Taiwan being absorbed into China "might mean fewer drag queen parades in Taiwan, but otherwise not the end of the world."
He said a "grand deal should be struck---we agree to acknowledge this reality in exchange for massive concessions from China on Africa and Antarctica."
Michael Sobolik, a senior fellow and China expert at the Hudson Institute, criticized Beattie's appointment, saying his positions on Taiwan and the Muslim Uighur minority in China gave Beijing "a bullhorn" at the State Department.
"It’s the opposite of an America First foreign policy and actually subverts America’s national interests. President Trump needs political appointees who don’t actively work against his own foreign policy agenda," Sobolik said.
Beattie has also said the US treats white people in the rural US worse than China treats the Uighurs.
"America treats rural whites far worse than China treats" Uighurs, Beattie wrote on X in October last year.
In 2021, he said China was not "genocidal."
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
Russian hackers last year targeted a Dutch public facility in the first such an attack on the lowlands country’s infrastructure, its military intelligence services said on Monday. The Netherlands remained an “interesting target country” for Moscow due to its ongoing support for Ukraine, its Hague-based international organizations, high-tech industries and harbors such as Rotterdam, the Dutch Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIVD) said in its yearly report. Last year, the MIVD “saw a Russian hacker group carry out a cyberattack against the digital control system of a public facility in the Netherlands,” MIVD Director Vice Admiral Peter Reesink said in the 52-page
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS