Darren Beattie is not a diplomat. He is not a statesman. He is not someone who stumbled once and apologized. He is a white nationalist ideologue with a PhD and a well-documented record of saying the quiet part so loud it echoes through authoritarian regimes with joy. And now, somehow, grotesquely, insultingly, he’s the acting president of the U.S. Institute of Peace — a congressionally funded organization designed to prevent violent conflict and promote diplomacy around the world.
This isn’t just absurd. It’s strategic sabotage. A calculated defilement of the institution’s purpose. Beattie’s entire career has been built on grievance, paranoia, and supremacist revisionism. After his ouster from the White House in 2018, he founded a right-wing conspiracy blog soaked in January 6 denialism and “Great Replacement” theory rhetoric — the same ideology cited by multiple mass shooters. His social media has been a nonstop sledgehammer to reason and decency, culminating in one of the most openly white supremacist statements to come from a U.S. official in decades:
“Competent white men must be in charge if you want things to work. Unfortunately, our entire national ideology is predicated on coddling the feelings of women and minorities, and demoralizing competent white men.”
That sentence alone should disqualify someone from public service in any sane democracy. In Trump’s America, it earns you a promotion.
Beattie now controls an institution that operates in fragile post-conflict zones, places where genocide has already happened or where ethnic tensions still smolder. His job, on paper, is to foster dialogue, diplomacy, and reconciliation. But the man believes in none of those things. His worldview is built on dominance, racial hierarchy, and conspiratorial rot. He’s not a peacebuilder — he’s a demolition expert dressed as a bureaucrat. He does not belong in the U.S. Institute of Peace. He belongs in a history textbook under the chapter titled “Authoritarian Capture and the Erosion of Democratic Institutions.”
His appointment didn’t come from nowhere. It was the endgame of a hostile campaign to seize and gut the institute from the inside. In February 2025, Trump signed an executive order aimed at dismantling the USIP as part of his broader war on independent agencies. The Department of Government Efficiency led the raid. When employees resisted, the administration returned with the FBI and D.C. police. What followed was a grotesque farce of democracy: a late-night seizure of the building, a mass firing of nearly all employees, and a court battle that bounced between victory and loss until the D.C. Circuit handed control back to the administration. The same administration that then installed Beattie like a crown jewel in their shrine to institutional desecration.
The defense of Beattie’s appointment from the State Department reads like satire written by an apologist for autocracy. They praised him for advancing Trump’s “America First” agenda. As if that phrase, hollowed out by cruelty and racism, somehow aligns with the work of peace and diplomacy. As if “peace” is just another department to conquer. Beattie, of course, is also still serving as Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy, meaning he now holds two high-ranking positions — one shaping America’s message abroad, the other warping one of our most symbolic institutions into a vessel for his ideology.
This is not just a contradiction. It’s a taunt. A finger in the eye of every diplomat, every peacekeeper, every citizen who once believed that the U.S. could be a credible voice for conflict resolution. Beattie’s presence at USIP sends a clear message to the world: under this administration, peace is no longer neutral, no longer just, no longer interested in coexistence. It has been annexed. White men first. Truth later. Everything else negotiable.
If this were happening in another country — if a known racist ideologue seized control of that country’s peace ministry through a judicial loophole backed by a propaganda regime — American media would call it out as a warning sign. A creeping coup. But here, we just call it Tuesday. Beattie is not some fringe actor who slipped through the cracks. He is the regime’s ideal — unaccountable, shameless, and entirely comfortable using taxpayer-funded platforms to launder hate as heritage.
We do not have to accept this. We do not have to pretend this is a difference of opinion. This is not about politics. This is about the corruption of language, the weaponization of governance, and the turning of a peace institute into a mascot for white grievance and autocratic power. Darren Beattie is not a mistake. He is the plan.
And the plan is working — unless we stop it. Call your representatives. Flood their inboxes. Demand hearings. Demand resignations. Shine light on this like your life depends on it. Because in parts of the world where USIP once operated with respect, this appointment sends the opposite signal. Where once there was trust, now there is trauma. Where once there was peace, now there is propaganda in its place.
Beattie doesn’t belong in the Institute of Peace. He belongs in an institution for being a piece of shit.
Donald Trump didn’t just appoint Darren Beattie to lead the U.S. Institute of Peace — he spit in the face of every survivor of political violence, every peacebuilder working in conflict zones, and every American who still believes government should serve something larger than white nationalist ego. If you believe that matters — if you refuse to let fascists redefine peace while hiding behind flags and titles — then subscribe. Free or paid, your support helps us expose the rot, name the enablers, and hold the line with journalism sharp enough to cut through the bullshit.
This post has been syndicated from Closer to the Edge, where it was published under this address.