Darren Beattie, fired from the Trump White House in 2018 after it was revealed he attended a white supremacist conference, has just been appointed acting president of the U.S. Institute of Peace, according to the State Department.
Beattie first gained attention while working as a speechwriter for Trump. He was dismissed after CNN reported that he had spoken at the 2016 H.L. Mencken Club conference, a gathering known for featuring white nationalists and far-right extremists. The event has long been associated with racist, anti-immigrant rhetoric, and Beattie’s participation raised serious concerns about his affiliations.
After his firing, Beattie doubled down, aligning himself more openly with far-right ideologies. He founded and now runs Revolver News, a website that has published conspiracy theories about the January 6th Capitol attack and spread disinformation about law enforcement’s role in it, often pushing the baseless idea that the FBI orchestrated the riot as a “false flag” operation.
Despite this track record, the Trump administration later brought Beattie back into government, giving him a role on the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad. And now, under Trump’s second administration, he’s been appointed to lead the U.S. Institute of Peace, a taxpayer-funded agency whose mission is to prevent and resolve violent conflicts.
According to the State Department’s website, Beattie is also responsible for “public diplomacy outreach,” which includes messaging to counter terrorism and violent extremism. The irony is staggering a man who’s openly trafficked in extremist rhetoric is now overseeing U.S. efforts to fight it.
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