gotchanewsdaily.com 
CNN
—
Darren Beattie, a former Donald Trump speechwriter who was fired in 2018 after CNN revealed he spoke at a conference attended by White nationalists, has been elevated to a top job at the State Department, multiple sources familiar with the move told CNN.
Beattie was appointed to serve as the acting Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, a key role that is responsible for helping shape US messaging abroad related to counterterrorism and violent extremism, according to the State Department website.
CNN’s KFile first reported in 2018 that Beattie, a former Duke University visiting instructor, spoke in 2016 to the H.L. Mencken Club – a gathering that has included White nationalist figures such as Richard Spencer and Peter Brimelow. Beattie, who was then working as a speechwriter in the Trump White House, defended his speech, claiming it was academic in nature. The Washington Post later reported he was fired after CNN’s article.
After being ousted from the Trump White House, Beattie founded the right-wing media outlet Revolver News. The outlet is known for amplifying false conspiracies about the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, including allegations that federal agencies orchestrated aspects of the attack and controlled extremist groups involved in the attack.
Beattie also has made a series of racially charged comments, writing in one tweet last year, “Competent white men must be in charge if you want things to work. Unfortunately, our entire national ideology is predicated on coddling the feelings of women and minorities, and demoralizing competent white men.” He praised Dr. James Watson, the founder of modern genetics who later suggested Black people were less intelligent than White people, as the “greatest living American scientist.” Beattie repeatedly said Black lawmakers, policymakers, and groups need to “learn” their place and take “a knee to MAGA.”
“‘Shithole countries’ was the high-point of Trumps presidency,” he wrote in 2020.
Beattie also posted in 2020 a deeply misogynistic tweet attacking Taylor Swift for opposing a monument in Tennessee’s Capitol honoring Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Confederate general and early leader of the Ku Klux Klan, comparing her advocacy to performing sexual favors for music producers.
“That celebrities are required to debase themselves with such statements is, in some ways, even more humiliating than the physical favors they are required to perform for their producers,” he wrote.
CNN reviewed dozens of Beattie’s nearly 40,000 tweets since the news of his appointment was reported. Neither Beattie nor the State Department immediately provided comment. The State Department did not say whether the administration intends to nominate Beattie for the position beyond the acting role.
CNN’s KFile found multiple deleted tweets in which Beattie, during the attack, cheered on the January 6 rioters at the US Capitol.
“Based,” Beattie wrote, using slang to express strong agreement, in a since-removed tweet about a video of police clashing with Trump supporters on the Capitol steps. “The forgotten man speaks,” Beattie wrote in another deleted tweet about rioters in the US Senate chamber. As the attack unfolded, Beattie wrote in a still active tweet, “The FBI should take a knee to show respect to the MAGA protestors.”
Following the riot, Beattie wrote in another deleted tweet at approximately 11 p.m., “This color revolution is red, white and blue.”
Despite his firing from the Trump administration, Beattie remained a loyal supporter of Trump. In late 2020, Trump appointed Beattie to the US Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad.
The commission is tasked with protecting historic sites, including Holocaust memorials, and the appointment drew fierce backlash from organizations like the Anti-Defamation League. In early 2022, then-President Joe Biden dismissed Beattie from the commission, along with several other Trump-era appointees.
Beattie’s appointment to become one of the State Department’s public faces for diplomacy signals the Trump administration’s pugilist strategy on the world stage.
A history of controversial and racially charged rhetoric
Since Semafor first reported his appointment on Sunday, Beattie has come under scrutiny for controversial tweets promoting conspiracy theories, endorsing violence, attacking US allies and inflammatory rhetoric.
In July 2024, he wrote that it “might mean fewer drag queen parades in Taiwan, but otherwise not the end of the world,” if China took over Taiwan, and the US could acknowledge this in exchange for “massive concessions from China on Africa and Antarctica.”
He stated last August that the new UK “ruling regime,” which elected the liberal Labour Party, “is far less legitimate than Saddam was in Iraq prior to the US invasion — and, for that matter, far less legitimate than Maduro’s regime in Venezuela.”
He suggested in September 2024 that the US intelligence community is more likely to be behind the assassination attempts on Trump’s life than Iran.
Beattie repeatedly spread conspiracy theories regarding the January 6 Capitol attack, including referring to pipe bombs found outside the DNC and RNC offices as the “pipe bomb hoax” and that the federal government spurred the insurrection, calling it a “Fedsurrection” and “set up.”
Almost immediately following the attack, Beattie denied that those breaking into the Capitol were Trump supporters in a since-removed tweet even while cheering it on.
In another series of deleted tweets following the attack at the Capitol, Beattie targeted several lawmakers, groups and policymakers of color.
“Mayor Bowswer (sic) should take a KNEE as sign of respect for MAGA,” read one.
“Tim Scott needs to learn his place and take a KNEE to MAGA,” read another.
“BLM must take a knee to MAGA. They must learn their place,” read another.
“Kay Cole James of Heritage Foundation needs to learn her natural place and take a KNEE to MAGA,” read a fourth.
A fifth undeleted tweet targeted Black academic Ibram X. Kendi.
“Ibram Kendi needs to learn his place and take a knee to MAGA. Learn his proper role in our society,” it reads.
In other tweets, Beattie repeatedly mocked the US State Department during the first Trump administration and the Biden administration. He wrote in October 2021, “Imagine having respect for the State Department.”
