This episode is made possible by PwC.
If you're curious how artificial intelligence is.
Reshaping our lives and redefining what's possible,
listen to the Most interesting thing in AI, a podcast produced by Atlantic Rethink.
The Atlantic's creative marketing studio in collaboration with PwC.
A few weeks ago, Darren Beatty was appointed to a senior role at the State Department,
acting undersecretary for Public diplomacy.
Beatty is a known quantity.
He was fired by the last Trump administration after it came out
that he'd attended and spoken at a conference with white nationalists.
But this experience doesn't seem to have rattled him.
In the following years, he made many controversial remarks on Twitter,
including that competent white men must be in charge if you want things to work.
Just watching the first few weeks of the new president's term indicates that curbing Wokeness
and cultural liberalism is top of mind for the administration.
It's remarkable to look back on polling that shows that the economy,
not the war on Wokeness, was the top issue for Trump voters.
But from directing removal of trans Americans
in the military to rolling back DEI initiatives throughout the government,
the Trump administration has made anti Wokeness a core focus.