A Trump nominee who wrote a book about anti-white racism just lost his confirmation, and it was his own party’s senators who dealt the final blow

Jeremy Carl, a political commentator who has argued that white people are victims of racism, has withdrawn his candidacy for a senior diplomatic role at the State Department. He pulled out on Tuesday after Republican opposition made his confirmation look increasingly unlikely.

According to Politico, President Trump had nominated Carl in June to serve as assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs. His path to confirmation hit serious trouble in recent weeks, particularly after Senator John Curtis, a Republican from Utah, publicly said he would vote against him.

Carl later described his confirmation hearing in February as “theatrical” and “brutal” in a piece he published in The Spectator, a conservative British magazine. Both Republicans and Democrats had pressed him during the hearing to explain his past remarks about protecting “white identity” in American culture.

Republican senators withdrawing support made confirmation impossible for Carl

In a social media post announcing his withdrawal, Carl thanked the administration for nominating him and praised the White House for choosing nominees outside the “same stable of ‘business as usual’ possibilities.” Carl, who previously served as deputy assistant secretary of the Interior during Trump’s first term, explained that for senior roles like this one, support from the President and Secretary of State was not enough on its own.

He said he needed unanimous support from every GOP senator on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, since Senate Democrats were unanimously against him. That unanimous Republican support, he said, was “not forthcoming.” This is just one of several areas where Trump’s administration is facing internal pressure on major decisions.

Civil rights and labor groups had also actively opposed his nomination, pointing to his history of inflammatory remarks about immigration and race. Carl’s 2024 book, “The Unprotected Class: How Anti-White Racism Is Tearing America Apart,” argues that white people have faced ongoing discrimination and that their identity has been “erased” from American history.

During the hearing, Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, asked Carl to define “white identity.” Carl described it as “certain types of Anglo-derived culture that comes from our history.”  He later wrote on social media that he was “of course, not a White nationalist,” and clarified that the culture he referred to was “simply the culture of the overwhelming majority of Americans who lived here” before 1965. 

He added that Americans of “every race or cultural background can ultimately share in and contribute to that culture.” Carl also faced scrutiny for agreeing with a podcast host who criticized Jewish people for claiming “special victim status” after the Holocaust. Senator Curtis specifically cited these views, saying he found Carl’s “anti-Israel views and insensitive remarks about the Jewish people unbecoming of the position for which he has been nominated.” 

Carl is not the only Trump nominee to face obstacles due to controversial remarks; White House official Paul Ingrassia and Australian-American commentator Nick Adams have also seen their nominations stall in the Senate. Meanwhile, Trump continues to face pushback on other foreign policy fronts, including his approach to key Middle East waterways.