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."
Auschwitz survivor Eva Schloss, the stepsister of teenage diarist Anne Frank and a tireless educator about the horrors of the Holocaust, has died. She was 96. The Anne Frank Trust UK, of which Schloss was honorary president, said she died on Saturday in London, where she lived. Britain’s King Charles III said he was “privileged and proud” to have known Schloss, who cofounded the charitable trust to help young people challenge prejudice. “The horrors that she endured as a young woman are impossible to comprehend and yet she devoted the rest of her life to overcoming hatred and prejudice, promoting kindness, courage, understanding
Tens of thousands of Filipino Catholics yesterday twirled white cloths and chanted “Viva, viva,” as a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through the streets of Manila in the nation’s biggest annual religious event. The day-long procession began before dawn, with barefoot volunteers pulling the heavy carriage through narrow streets where the devout waited in hopes of touching the icon, believed to hold miraculous powers. Thousands of police were deployed to manage crowds that officials believe could number in the millions by the time the statue reaches its home in central Manila’s Quiapo church around midnight. More than 800 people had sought
DENIAL: Pyongyang said a South Korean drone filmed unspecified areas in a North Korean border town, but Seoul said it did not operate drones on the dates it cited North Korea’s military accused South Korea of flying drones across the border between the nations this week, yesterday warning that the South would face consequences for its “unpardonable hysteria.” Seoul quickly denied the accusation, but the development is likely to further dim prospects for its efforts to restore ties with Pyongyang. North Korean forces used special electronic warfare assets on Sunday to bring down a South Korean drone flying over North Korea’s border town. The drone was equipped with two cameras that filmed unspecified areas, the General Staff of the North Korean People’s Army said in a statement. South Korea infiltrated another drone
COMMUNIST ALIGNMENT: To Lam wants to combine party chief and state presidency roles, with the decision resting on the election of 200 new party delegates next week Communist Party of Vietnam General Secretary To Lam is seeking to combine his party role with the state presidency, officials said, in a move that would align Vietnam’s political structure more closely to China’s, where President Xi Jinping (習近平) heads the party and state. Next week about 1,600 delegates are to gather in Hanoi to commence a week-long communist party congress, held every five years to select new leaders and set policy goals for the single-party state. Lam, 68, bade for both top positions at a party meeting last month, seeking initial party approval ahead of the congress, three people briefed by
RSS