(Middle East Eye) A staunch anti-immigrant conservative who was a spokesperson for the White House during Donald Trump’s first year in office in 2017 is returning to government — this time, as director of policy planning at the US State Department, which is a role that effectively sets the agenda for the secretary of state.
Michael Anton’s appointment was announced earlier this month as Trump selects his team for his second term in office, beginning on 20 January.
The 55-year-old Anton, who is of Lebanese descent, had previously been a speechwriter for conservative media tycoon Rupert Murdoch.
In a 6,000-word essay that reemerged on USA Today this week and titled “Toward a Sensible, Coherent Trumpism” Anton wrote: “‘Diversity’ is not ‘our strength’; it’s a source of weakness, tension and disunion. America is not a ‘nation of immigrants’; we are originally a nation of settlers, who later chose to admit immigrants.”
