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."
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
In the week before his fatal shooting, right-wing US political activist Charlie Kirk cheered the boom of conservative young men in South Korea and warned about a “globalist menace” in Tokyo on his first speaking tour of Asia. Kirk, 31, who helped amplify US President Donald Trump’s agenda to young voters with often inflammatory rhetoric focused on issues such as gender and immigration, was shot in the neck on Wednesday at a speaking event at a Utah university. In Seoul on Friday last week, he spoke about how he “brought Trump to victory,” while addressing Build Up Korea 2025, a conservative conference
DEADLOCK: Putin has vowed to continue fighting unless Ukraine cedes more land, while talks have been paused with no immediate results expected, the Kremlin said Russia on Friday said that peace talks with Kyiv were on “pause” as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin still wanted to capture the whole of Ukraine. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said that he was running out of patience with Putin, and the NATO alliance said it would bolster its eastern front after Russian drones were shot down in Polish airspace this week. The latest blow to faltering diplomacy came as Russia’s army staged major military drills with its key ally Belarus. Despite Trump forcing the warring sides to hold direct talks and hosting Putin in Alaska, there
North Korea has executed people for watching or distributing foreign television shows, including popular South Korean dramas, as part of an intensifying crackdown on personal freedoms, a UN human rights report said on Friday. Surveillance has grown more pervasive since 2014 with the help of new technologies, while punishments have become harsher — including the introduction of the death penalty for offences such as sharing foreign TV dramas, the report said. The curbs make North Korea the most restrictive country in the world, said the 14-page UN report, which was based on interviews with more than 300 witnesses and victims who had
RSS