Imagine what it must have taken for a Trump official to be fired for making racist comments during the provocative president's last administration. Darren Beattie managed to get booted. Beattie’s contract was terminated after he was found to have spoken at the 2016 H.L. Mencken Club conference alongside anti-immigration activist Peter Brimelow.
The H.L. Mencken Club calls itself an “organization for independent-minded intellectuals and academics of the Right.” It started in 2008 and was named after the American journalist who once described Jews as “plausibly…the most unpleasant race ever heard of” and an educated black person as being a “low-caste man” who will “remain inert and inefficient until 50 generations of him have lived in civilization. And even then, the superior white race will be 50 generations ahead of him.”
Previous speakers at the conference include alt-right figurehead Richard Spencer and writer John Derbyshire, who was fired from the National Review after he wrote an article for Taki’s Magazine in 2012 suggesting parents should warn their children about black people. The article included tips such as “If planning a trip to a beach or amusement park at some date, find out whether it is likely to be swamped with blacks.”
Lest you think that Beattie was simply one of the many Trump officials who claimed he didn’t know anything about the white supremacist groups they agreed to speak to. Beattie made his views clear less than four months ago, stating the need for essential matters to be handled by white men.
“Competent white men must be in charge if you want things to work," said Beattie. "Unfortunately, our entire national ideology is predicated on coddling the feelings of women and minorities and demoralizing competent white men.”
You can’t keep a good racist down in an administration full of them. He wasn’t the least bit embarrassed after his firing. “In 2016, I attended the Mencken conference in question and delivered a stand-alone, academic talk titled 'The Intelligentsia and the Right.' I said nothing objectionable and stand by my remarks completely. It was the honor of my life to serve in the Trump Administration. I love President Trump, who is a fearless American hero, and continue to support him one hundred percent. I have no further comment.”
Before joining the Trump administration, Beattie worked as a professor of political science at Duke University and openly supported Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign. Beattie said that Trump’s hard-line immigration policies were the main reason he backed him. His Ph.D. thesis was based on the teachings of Martin Heidegger, the German philosopher who was also a member of the Nazi Party. Trump appointed him to the Commission for the Preservation of American Heritage Abroad two years after his dismissal.
It was just announced that Beattie would be appointed to a top role at the State Department. White nationalist Steve Bannon was excited at the news. Said Bannon: “As important as his agency will be in the building at ‘Foggy Bottom,’ the symbolism of his hire by POTUS screams: ‘We Don’t Give 2 F****x’ for convention.’”
Beattie has led the right-wing news aggregator Revolver News for the last few years, often criticizing American foreign policy, including funding for Ukraine amid the Russian invasion.
The Trump administration doesn’t care anymore about the appearance of ties to white supremacy and the Nazi Party. Elon Musk’s Nazi salute was just another day in the life. Maybe the appointment of racist officials is the point. Letting Trump supporters know he really does have their back.
This post originally appeared on Medium and is edited and republished with author's permission. Read more of William Spivey's work on Medium. And if you dig his words, buy the man a coffee.