MaddowBlog-Accused of being a white nationalist, Trump State Department nominee withdraws

[LetMyPeopleVote]

As Jeremy Carl’s nomination collapses, a larger question hangs overhead: Why in the world did the president nominate this guy?

As Jeremy Carl’s indefensible State Department nomination collapses, questions hang overhead:

Why did Trump nominate this guy, and why did Trump continue to support Carl’s doomed nomination after his white-supremacist worldview was exposed?
www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2026-03-11T13:42:45.884Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/accused-of-being-a-white-nationalist-trump-state-department-nominee-withdraws

And then there’s Jeremy Carl, Trump’s nominee for assistant secretary of state for international organizations, who has a similarly offensive background, and whose nomination just collapsed. Reuters reported:

President Donald Trump’s nominee for a senior ​State Department position withdrew from consideration on Tuesday after his controversial comments about Jewish ‌people and diminishing white power stirred rare Republican opposition to the president’s choice.

In a statement on X, Jeremy Carl, Trump’s nominee for assistant secretary of state for international organizations, thanked Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio for their ​support, but said their backing was not sufficient.

The demise of Carl’s nomination was all but inevitable after senators learned about his highly provocative record, which included publishing online commentary suggesting the Capitol rioters of Jan. 6, 2021, were treated worse than Black people in the South during the Jim Crow era. He’s similarly championed the “great replacement” conspiracy theory and condemned white people who celebrate Juneteenth.

“We are essentially moving,” Carl told Tucker Carlson in April 2024, “to what is effectively a post-white America.”.....

In a normal and healthy political environment, these revelations would have led the White House to pull the nomination. But Carl held onto Trump’s backing and subjected himself to a Senate Foreign Relations Committee grilling last month, where Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut asked him about his stated concerns regarding “the erasure of white culture.” To put it mildly, Carl struggled to defend his right-wing worldview.

Trump nominated a legit white nationalist to a top post at the State Department. I asked him some basic questions about his belief in the “erasure of white culture”. Watch this embarrassing, fumbling answer. Like he has never before been asked to explain his views.

— Chris Murphy (@chrismurphyct.bsky.social) 2026-02-12T21:15:09.155Z

In a separate exchange with Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Carl also said, “One of my weaknesses … is sometimes I take an idea too far. I made some comments … about minimizing the effects of the Holocaust that were absolutely wrong.”.....

But as the dust settles on this avoidable fiasco, three broader questions hang overhead: Why in the world did the president nominate this guy in the first place; who did the vetting on Carl; and why did Trump continue to support Carl’s doomed nomination in light of everything we’ve learned about his indefensible worldview?