A senior State Department official who was fired as a White House speechwriter during the first Trump administration for attending a gathering of white supremacists has been appointed acting president of the U.S. Institute of Peace, according to the State Department.
Darren Beattie, who will lead the institute, is responsible for leading “public diplomacy outreach, which includes messaging to counter terrorism and violent extremism” at the State Department, according to its website. He will continue in that role, a State Department official said on Friday.
Mr. Beattie did not immediately respond to questions about what his plans are for the Institute of Peace, an independent nonprofit that supports diplomatic solutions to global conflicts. It receives funding from Congress, but it is not a federal agency. Earlier this year, the Trump administration moved to gut the historically bipartisan entity as part of its wide-ranging effort to shrink the federal government.
The administration and employees of the Department of Government Efficiency, the office formerly led by Elon Musk, seized control of the institute’s building in March, citing an executive order from President Trump that ordered the institute to cut its staffing to a bare minimum. The confrontation, facilitated by Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department, was one of the more shocking attempts by the administration to assert power over the capital’s institutions.
