KFile: Too toxic for Trump's first term, some officials are back in the fold

CNN

20-05-2025

At least four people from Donald Trump's first term who were deemed too extreme or politically toxic to win Senate confirmation – or even keep their jobs – are now back in the fold and in some cases with more power than before.
One attacked women's right to vote. Another spoke at a conference with White nationalists. A third said President Barack Obama was a 'terrorist leader' and said his former CIA director should face a 'firing squad,' commit suicide, or become a 'prison b*tch.'
A fourth called Hillary Clinton 'a terrorist with amnesia' and accused Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's wife of plotting to combine the governments of the US, Canada and Mexico.
All of them were in some way demoted or removed from their jobs in Trump's first term but have now been reappointed or renominated – part of a pattern in Trump's second term to bring back figures once rejected for promoting conspiracy theories or inflaming racial and gender tensions.
In 2025, they're no longer fringe – they're in charge.
Their return is further evidence of the Trump administration's willingness to sideline more moderate voices, reshape federal policy along ideological lines and view loyalty as the most important qualification.
In Trump's first term, many of these figures were derailed precisely because they were seen as too unprofessional or conspiratorial – even by a Republican-controlled Senate. Now, in his second term, they're not only being welcomed back but are now elevated into positions of real influence with less oversight, fewer checks and, in some cases, greater reach.
With few exceptions, Trump has gotten nearly all his nominees through this term – thanks to a Republican Party that has largely fallen in line behind even his most controversial appointees and nominees.
Among them is John Gibbs, a top policy official at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The powerful policy job gives Gibbs a top leadership spot at HUD overseeing research and data that plays a central role in shaping federal housing strategy. It doesn't require Senate confirmation.
In Trump's first term, Gibbs, then a HUD official in a different role, was nominated in 2020 to lead the Office of Personnel Management – the agency that oversees hiring, pay and conduct for the nation's large federal civil servant workforce.
The Republican-controlled Senate balked at his nomination though after CNN's KFile reported that he baselessly claimed that Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign chairman participated in a satanic ritual and that Gibbs defended a notorious racist banned from Twitter for antisemitic and Nazi content.
Gibbs later unsuccessfully ran for Congress in Michigan in 2022, winning the Republican nomination with Trump's endorsement. That year, CNN's KFile reported that as a student at Stanford University, Gibbs had founded a so-called 'think tank' that argued the US had 'suffered' from women's suffrage and promoted websites that advocated for repealing the 19th Amendment.
Gibbs claimed the website was satire to anger feminists on campus, but records on the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine show he also left anti-feminist comments across the web – undermining his explanation.
Gibbs told CNN in an email, 'Just as President Trump has modeled courage and resilience in the face vicious assaults, attempts to degrade my character with false attacks have not and will not succeed. The best is yet to come.'
Gibbs later resurfaced as the administrator of Ottawa County, Michigan, where he was fired after a little more than a year amid allegations of gross misconduct and willful malfeasance. He sued the county and settled in early 2025 for $190,000 and a resignation agreement.
Darren Beattie, a former Trump White House speechwriter, was fired in 2018 after it was revealed by CNN he spoke at a conference alongside White nationalists. He went on to launch Revolver News, a far-right site known for publishing false January 6 conspiracy theories, and he has posted racist and misogynistic messages, including that 'competent white men must be in charge.'
Now, Beattie is the acting under secretary for public diplomacy at the State Department where he is responsible for helping shape US messaging abroad related to counterterrorism and violent extremism.
After Beattie was fired, Trump appointed him in 2020 to a commission overseeing Holocaust memorials. The move prompted backlash from Jewish groups, and President Joe Biden had him removed from the commission.
In the years following, Beattie posted racist and misogynistic messages on social media and attacked Black lawmakers and the Black Lives Matter movement saying they needed to 'learn their place' and 'take a knee to MAGA.'
He also praised January 6 rioters in real time and attacked his now-boss, Secretary of State Marco Rubio – invoking a false rumor that Rubio used to attend LGBTQ+ foam parties.
Beattie now serves as one of the administration's leading public voices overseas after Trump appointed him acting under secretary for public diplomacy and public affairs. The role at the State Department helps shape US messaging abroad. When asked about Beattie's comments, Rubio emphasized that Beattie was at the agency in an 'acting' capacity and did respond to further questions.
A West Point graduate and retired Army brigadier general, Anthony Tata was nominated in the spring of 2020 to become the third highest ranking official at the Pentagon, as under secretary of defense for policy. But his history of conspiratorial and inflammatory rhetoric, uncovered by CNN, plus questions about his military record, derailed his nomination, which was later withdrawn.
Tata was then installed as the deputy under secretary for policy at the Pentagon, which does not require Senate confirmation, and later served as the acting under secretary for policy for the final two months of Trump's first term.
Now, Tata is nominated to become the under secretary of personnel and readiness at the Defense Department, a top civilian role that oversees recruitment, benefits and military readiness that could dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts.
But social media posts revealed by CNN's KFile found that Tata had a history of using inflammatory and conspiratorial rhetoric. He falsely called Obama a 'terrorist leader' and a Muslim, lamenting that 'Obama normalized Islam for America.' He frequently attacked Islam, calling it the 'most oppressive violent religion I know of,' and he called some Democratic politicians 'violent extremists.' He also pushed conspiracy theories that former CIA director John Brennan tried to overthrow Trump and even have him assassinated through a cryptic tweet.
Tata said it 'might be a good time' for Brennan to commit suicide or become a 'prison b*tch.'
Senators also expressed concern about Tata's military record. A 2007 Army investigation found he committed adultery with at least two women – a crime under military law – and submitted a falsified legal document during a child support case. The Army declined to penalize Tata and could not determine who created the fake legal document, and Tata retired shortly after.
At his confirmation hearing last week, Tata declined to comment to CNN but said his past comments that derailed his previous nomination were 'out of character,' and he regretted making them and pledged to be 'an apolitical leader.'
Leandro Rizzuto Jr., an heir to the Conair beauty product fortune, faced bipartisan resistance in 2018 when Trump nominated him to serve as ambassador to Barbados and several Caribbean nations.
His nomination stalled over his history of promoting conspiracy theories and using social media to spread baseless attacks on public figures, including Sen. Ted Cruz, Sen. Mitt Romney and Hillary Clinton. He also amplified false claims that Ted Cruz's wife, Heidi, was a leading member trying to combine the governments of the US, Canada and Mexico.
In a now-deleted tweet, Rizzuto told Cruz to 'go back to Canada,' and in another tweet, he called Hillary Clinton 'a terrorist with amnesia.'
His nomination never moved forward, and Rizzuto was then installed as the US consul general to Bermuda.
Rizzuto 'retweeted some nonsense,' he later said of his tweets.
Rizzuto told CNN in an email, 'Past history is just that and my focus is further contributing towards America's interests.'
But this year, Trump nominated Rizzuto to be US Permanent Representative to the Organization of American States. The position represents US interests in the premier multilateral forum for countries of the Western Hemisphere, including North, South and Central America; the Caribbean; and Canada.