A Trump administration nomination for a top State Department job appears to be in jeopardy, as the nominee has been called out for supporting and spreading white nationalist views. After being grilled on Capitol Hill and condemned by a number of politicians and organizations, it appears that the man who would be in charge of U.S. relations with the United Nations may be rejected.
Murphy grills Trump nominee over ‘white nationalist’ views
“Trump nominated a legit white nationalist to a top post at the State Department.” That was the blunt assessment posted online by Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Vermont concerning Jeremy Carl, who has been nominated for a top position within the State Department. As Murphy noted of his grilling of Carl during the latter’s confirmation hearing, “I asked him some basic questions about his belief in the ‘erasure of white culture.’” In the accompanying video from Thursday’s hearings, Carl appears to stumble while trying to explain what aspects of white culture were being erased in the United States, citing churches, food and music, including a reference to “the Super Bowl halftime show, which was not in English this year.” Eventually, Carl argues that “the majority, common American culture that we had for some time that through particularly mass immigration, I think has become much more balkanized, and I think that weakens us.” In his caption of the video on X, Murphy describes the exchange. “Watch this embarrassing, fumbling answer. Like he has never before been asked to explain his views.”
Murphy is one of many people who have condemned Carl and criticized the Trump administration for nominating him for the position of assistant secretary of state for International Organization Affairs, which would put Carl in charge of State Department interactions with organizations such as the United Nations. As CNN noted, Carl is a former deputy assistant secretary of the interior from the previous Trump administration who now serves as a senior fellow for a conservative think tank. Per The Guardian, he has supported “white supremacist, racist, antisemitic and homophobic views,” as one State Department official described it. Carl has supported the so-called “great replacement theory,” also known as “white replacement,” a dangerous conspiracy theory that posits that white people are purposely being replaced as the majority in the United States.
Long list of offensive comments put nomination in jeopardy
The Guardian reported some examples of the many racist, antisemitic and otherwise biased ideas and comments that Carl has made. He criticized the recognition of Juneteenth as a federal holiday, dismissing it as “race hustling and white shaming,” and responded to 2021 remarks by then Rep. Cori Bush about systemic racism by writing, “There is no ‘peaceful coexistence’ we are going to have when our opposition is led by people like this. We either win or die.” Carl, a Jewish convert to Christianity, has also made various antisemitic remarks, stating during a 2024 interview on The Christian Ghetto podcast that Jewish people “loved to play the victim” and arguing that the Holocaust “kind of dominates so much of modern Jewish thinking.” While standing behind some of his other comments, Carl apologized for his antisemitic views during Thursday’s hearing, calling them “absolutely wrong” and declaring, “I’m not going to sit here and defend them here.”
With so many offensive comments and controversial views, Carl’s chances of advancing out of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations seem doubtful. If all 10 Democrats on the committee oppose Carl’s nomination, any defection from the 12 Republicans on the committee will stall his nomination. That appears to be the case now, as Republican Sen. John Curtis released a statement after the hearing declaring that he would not be voting for Carl. “After reviewing his record and participating in today’s hearing, I do not believe that Jeremy Carl is the right person to represent our nation’s best interests in international forums,” the senator from Utah said. “I find his anti-Israel views and insensitive remarks about the Jewish people unbecoming of the position for which he has been nominated.”
Since coming back to the White House, President Donald Trump has nominated a number of controversial figures to top government positions. While the Senate has mostly approved of Trump’s appointees, it appears that the views of Carl may be too much for even some Republicans, with the Senate moving closer to rejecting Carl for a major State Department position.