Trump nominees’ past statements highlight administration’s ambivalence towards democracy, rights in Myanmar

Most American media attention on President Donald Trump’s new nominee for a high-ranking public diplomacy position has focused on his incendiary opinions about United States (US) politics rather than his views on Myanmar or other countries. However, the nomination of Darren J. Beattie to the post of undersecretary for public diplomacy in the US Department of State (DOS) is just one recent action by the Trump administration suggesting a noncommittal approach to opposing military rule and human rights abuses in Myanmar. Beattie—whom Trump’s secretary of state Marco Rubio chose for the post—worked in the first Trump administration as a speechwriter before being dismissed in 2018. He was fired after he was found to have participated in a conference attended by white nationalists two years earlier.The coverage of Beattie’s rehiring has focused on this history, as well as his promotion of conspiracy theories about Trump supporters’ violent insurrection in Washington on January 6, 2021 and his social media posts commenting on race. In October 2024, Beattie posted on the social media app X (formerly Twitter): “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.” Although Beattie’s position in the DOS will make him responsible for direct communication with the public in foreign countries, his comments about international politics have drawn less scrutiny. Discrediting democratic movements, minority rights “What do the Rohingya in Myanmar, the Uiguhrs [sic] in Xinjiang, and BLM in America have in common?” Beattie said in another X post in April 2021, two months after Myanmar’s coup. “If you know the real answer to this, you might just know a little too much for your own good.”The Rohingya of Rakhine State and Uyghur people of China’s Xinjiang region are both predominantly Muslim minority communities who have suffered persecution and been targeted with accusations of terrorism in their homelands. Black Lives Matter or BLM, a racial justice movement active in the US, has been accused of provoking violent unrest and perpetrating “terrorism” by its mostly conservative critics.Earlier the same month, Beattie posted, “How many color revolution ops is the Globalist American Empire running right now? Ukraine, Hong Kong, Xinjiang, Myanmar…” “Colour revolutions” such as Ukraine’s 2004 “Orange Revolution”, Georgia’s 2003 “Rose Revolution”, and Iran’s 2009 “Persian Spring” or “Green Revolution” were popular protest movements whose stated aim was resistance to authoritarianism. Detractors questioned whether the ostensibly grassroots, popular origins of these protests were truly spontaneous, accusing foreign governments and entities of fomenting unrest to further their own interests. Beattie’s post, which suggested US authorities were behind Myanmar’s “Spring Revolution” opposing the military coup in 2021, cast doubt on the anti-junta movement’s authenticity. Trump has also nominated policy analyst Elbridge Colby as undersecretary of defence for policy at the Department of Defense, also commonly known as the Pentagon. The day after the 2021 military coup, Colby approvingly reposted a link to a Wall Street Journal opinion piece arguing that the American response should be “strategic” and prioritise “realistic diplomacy, not only moral condemnation.” Colby—best known in Washington as an advocate of readiness for an armed conflict with China over Taiwan—has also endorsed the view that Western governments should not prioritise restoring democracy to Myanmar, but “some form or semblance of civilian and constitutional rule.” Gutting USAID Following a funding freeze that brought United States Agency for International Development (USAID) humanitarian assistance programmes to a halt in Thailand, Myanmar, and other developing countries, the Trump administration is directly targeting the agency with ruthless cuts. On the pretext of eliminating wasteful spending in the federal bureaucracy, tech tycoon Elon Musk secured Trump’s authorisation to slash more aid programmes, with the goal of ultimately shuttering the agency permanently.Among the initiatives Musk and Trump spoke publicly about “cancelling” was the Lincoln Scholarship programme, created to provide educational and research opportunities for young students and scholars in Myanmar.“Following up on the $45 million in DEI scholarships in Burma. This has been cancelled,” Musk’s team posted on X on January 29, using an old name for Myanmar and erroneously characterising the scholarships as a “diversity, equity, and inclusion” initiative. Trump mentioned the funding cut in later remarks to the press, presenting it as a successful instance of reining in out-of-control, potentially corrupt government spending. However, Trump’s choice of officials to run his administration points to reasons beyond budgetary concerns for withdrawing American support from Myanmar’s democratic opposition to military rule.

Trump nominees’ past statements highlight administration’s ambivalence towards democracy, rights in Myanmar

After cutting off aid to refugees and opponents of Myanmar’s military regime, the Trump administration is hiring officials who seem to be against prioritising the cause of democracy

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