Trump's Flood-the-Zone News Cycle Let Fired Aide Sneak Back In

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1. Former Duke visiting professor, Jan. 6 conspiracy theorist Darren Beattie appointed to top State Department position

Former Duke visiting professor, Jan. 6 conspiracy theorist Darren Beattie appointed to top State Department position


Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons | The Chronicle

By Abby Spiller
February 4, 2025 | 9:48pm EST

Former Duke visiting professor Darren Beattie was tapped to serve as the acting undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs by Secretary of State Marco Rubio Monday. ... In his role, Beattie, Graduate School ‘16, will manage the country’s public diplomacy outreach on topics including counterterrorism and violent extremism, assist in developing foreign policy initiatives as well as oversee both the Educational and Cultural Affairs and Global Public Affairs bureaus. The State Department has not indicated whether the administration plans to nominate him beyond the acting role, which would require Senate confirmation.

Beattie worked at Duke in the 2016-17 academic year on a one-year contract in the department of political science. While pursuing his doctorate at the University in years prior, Beattie wrote his thesis on modernity from the perspective of German philosopher Martin Heidegger, who was also a member of the Nazi Party. In his thesis, Beattie recognized the philosopher’s ties with the party as “highly troublesome,” and primarily focused on the significance of Heidegger’s scholarly contributions.

Additionally, during the beginning of his doctoral candidacy at Duke, Beattie wrote a biweekly column for The Chronicle. Upon returning as a faculty member, he wrote one guest column, where he condemned the University’s decision to sign a letter expressing opposition to President Donald Trump’s travel ban affecting several Muslim-majority countries.

The former Duke professor is well known for spreading conspiracy theories about the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection and has been denounced for his hateful rhetoric — most notably a post on X asserting that “competent white men must be in charge,” and that the “[U.S.’] ideology is predicated on coddling the feelings of women and minorities.” ... Following his stint at Duke, Beattie became a speechwriter for the first Trump administration, where he worked on a number of speeches for Stephen Miller, Trinity ‘07 and deputy chief of staff for policy for the Trump administration, according to The Washington Post.

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