By Daphne Psaledakis and Simon Lewis
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Trump administration has appointed to serve as the top public diplomacy official at the State Department a former speech writer for President Donald Trump with a history of doubts over U.S. foreign policy towards 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 State Department official said, a role that determines the tone of America’s public messaging in the world. Beattie requires 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 which 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,” ADL 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.
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Posts by Beattie on X have advocated for white men being in charge and questioned U.S. policy toward Taiwan.
In a post last October, Beattie wrote that America’s 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 U.S. policy towards Taiwan, saying that the democratically-governed island was “inevitably” going to belong to China, and that it was “not worth expending any capital to prevent.”
In July 2024, 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.”
Under a long-standing U.S. policy on Taiwan, a democratically governed island China claims as its territory, Washington has no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, but the U.S. is required under domestic law to provide it with means to defend itself.
Taiwan enjoyed strong support from the first Trump administration, including regularizing arms sales that continued under the Biden administration. But Trump unnerved Taiwan on the campaign trail by calling for it to pay to be defended. He has also threatened steep tariffs on semiconductors, exports of which are crucial to the island’s economy.
Michael Sobolik, a senior fellow and China expert at the Hudson Institute, criticized Beattie’s appointment saying his positions on Taiwan and the Muslim Uyghur 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 United States treats white people in the rural U.S. worse than China treats the Uyghurs.
“America treats rural whites far worse than China treats” Uyghurs, Beattie wrote on X in October. In 2021 he said China was not “genocidal.”
In Trump’s first term, the United States determined that China had committed genocide by repressing the Uyghurs.
U.S. authorities say Chinese authorities have established internment camps for Uyghurs and other religious and ethnic minority groups. Beijing has denied any abuses.
(Reporting by Simon Lewis, Daphne Psaledakis, David Brunnstrom and Michael Martina; Editing by Humeyra Pamuk and Alistair Bell)
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