Jeremy Carl, who President Donald Trump has tapped as assistant secretary of state for international organizations, forgot that the internet is forever.
Despite his best efforts to mass delete his history of racist, violent social media posts, CNN found scores of Carl’s tweets on the Wayback Machine, and they’re not great. But, of course, we know full well that’s not going to matter, as this is an administration committed to letting people like Carl call for violence while insisting that the left is the real problem.
Carl’s Twitter account was filled with praise for the Jan. 6 insurrectionists, who he called “political prisoners,” yet somehow the insurrection was actually a military coup organized by Nancy Pelosi?
Besides his passionate defense of treason, Carl’s Twitter account was a hotbed of racism and calls for violence.
Yes, violence. There’s no other way to describe Carl’s call for Randi Weingarten, American Federation of Teachers president, to be “tried for crimes against America’s children” and to “get the death penalty.” This was in the context of a dispute over closing schools due to COVID-19, so definitely a cool and normal thing to demand state-sanctioned killing over.
Carl also declared that there was no “peaceful coexistence” with “people like this,” referring to a totally anodyne post from former Rep. Cori Bush honoring Juneteenth.
Carl deeply, deeply hates Black people, calling Juneteenth “race hustling and white shaming,” and he was furious that there weren’t more white Christians in the Biden administration.
Somehow, none of this is a problem for the ostensibly very tender ears of the Trump administration, so very attuned to the slightest bad word about Charlie Kirk.
An unnamed official defended Carl to CNN by saying, “He’s never called for political violence. We look forward to Jeremy Carl’s contributions in support of the America First foreign policy agenda where he will ensure we are bringing international organizations back to their core mandates.”
It’s not clear how calling for someone to literally get the death penalty because you disagree with them isn’t calling for political violence. But, of course, Carl isn’t an outlier in the administration or the Republican party.
Trump’s original pick for attorney general was Matt Gaetz, who called for violence against protesters during the uprisings following the murder of George Floyd.
“Now that we clearly see Antifa as terrorists, can we hunt them down like we do those in the Middle East?” he wrote on Twitter.
And Darren Beattie, now in a top State Department role, said that “competent white men must be in charge” and that Black people need to “take a knee to MAGA.”
Similarly, Paul Ingrassia, who now heads the Office of Special Counsel, called on Trump to “declare martial law” after he lost the 2020 election and said that Mike Pence belonged in the “ninth circle of hell.”
Paul Ingrassia, head of the Office of Special Counsel
Then there are Trump’s supporters like GOP Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona, who called for “an eye for an eye,” shortly after special counsel Jack Smith took over the investigation of Trump in 2023.
Not to be outdone, Kari Lake, in a speech following the Smith announcement, basically just told the Biden administration that Trump supporters would shoot them.
“I have a message tonight for Merrick Garland and Jack Smith and Joe Biden—and the guys back there in the fake news media, you should listen up as well, this one is for you. If you want to get to President Trump, you are going to have go through me, and you are going to have to go through 75 million Americans just like me. And I’m going to tell you, most of us are card-carrying members of the NRA,” she said.
This is all quite the contrast to how much the Trump administration is going after anyone who says anything even mildly critical of Kirk. Speaking from the White House, Vice President JD Vance told people that they should call the employers of anyone they see not being nice enough about Kirk. And, of course, Trump has used Kirk’s death to call for violent retribution.
It’s not just hate speech about Kirk, though. The mildest negative statements about Trump officials or their actions are now deemed violent speech.
The spectacle of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who is overseeing an ongoing nationwide violent assault of immigrants, is apparently just a delicate, scared little flower.
After California Gov. Gavin Newsom posted, “Kristi Noem is going to have a bad day today. You’re welcome, America,” in reference to California’s passage of a law banning ICE from wearing masks, Noem called it “really menacing.” She went on to say it “panicked my family and friends.”
President Donald Trump with Charlie Kirk
Come on.
In the most ridiculous, overwrought, and—dare I say—fascist response imaginable, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli referred Newsom’s post to the Secret Service.
And according to Stephen Miller, who spends his days howling for brutality against immigrants and applauding ICE’s violence, Newsom calling these “authoritarian actions by an authoritarian government” actually “incites violence and terrorism.”
The Trump administration has created a world where it can say anything without consequences, cloaking itself in the twin mantles of free speech and power. Meanwhile, whenever Democrats express the slightest opposition, they’re threatened with state action.
This is pretty much as authoritarian as it gets.
