Trump appears to backtrack on tapping white nationalist for key role: report

Not even 10 days after announcing his appointment, President Donald Trump seems to be quietly backtracking on one of his most controversial administration appointments.

Last week, Trump announced he was tapping Darren Beattie for undersecretary of public diplomacy and public affairs at the State Department. A longtime associate of Steve Bannon, Beattie once served as a speechwriter for Trump but was fired after it was revealed he attended the white nationalist H.L. Mencken Club in 2016 and spoke alongside Peter Brimelow, founder of the anti-immigrant extremist website VDARE.

His social media accounts are a hotbed of not just racism but also attacks on the United States, claiming that white men in America are treated worse than Uighur Muslims in China and that "the Globalist American Empire is utterly dedicated to coddling the demands of women, minorities, and weapons manufacturers."

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According to Semafor, Trump appears to have thought better of this.

He is now nominating Sarah Rogers, a New York attorney "who has defended the National Rifle Association on free speech grounds and litigated against content moderation," per the report. She "will replace Darren Beattie, an outspoken and divisive MAGA figure who is acting in the role. Beattie, who was never expected to take the role on a permanent basis, had courted controversy in the past for associating with extreme figures and espousing foreign policy views at odds with Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s hawkishness."

The news triggered a number of reactions on social media.

"Sounds like Darren Beattie is out at State," wrote conservative analyst Josh Kraushaar.

"Darren Beattie's role at State was announced eight days ago — seems a little quicker than 'never expected to take the role on a permanent basis,'" wrote Southern Poverty Law Center researcher Hannah Gais.

Other commenters cautioned that this doesn't necessarily mean Beattie is being fired entirely — or even reassigned immediately.

"Not sure that says he is out. Just that he won't take that particular role," wrote Vox's Andrew Prokop.

"He could be performing the duties of the Under Secretary for several months, depending on the pace of the nomination proceedings," wrote former State Department official Brian P. McKeon.