Daily Kickoff
Good Tuesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we do a deep dive into the controversial background of Darren Beattie, who this week was named to a senior State Department role, and cover Sen. Lindsey Graham’s concerns about the growing isolationist movement in the Republican Party. We also report on a handful of campus antisemitism investigations proactively launched by the Department of Education, and report on the Jewish Institute for Liberal Values’ rebranding as the North American Values Institute. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Ben Black, Robert Kraft and Joe Lonsdale.
What We’re Watching
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump are slated to meet this afternoon at the White House. They’ll hold a joint press conference at 5:10 p.m. ET following their meeting. More on Netanyahu’s visit below.
- Trump is expected to sign executive orders today withdrawing the U.S. from the U.N.’s Human Right Council and cutting off future funding to UNRWA, the U.N. agency tasked with working with Palestinians. Funding to UNRWA had previously been halted by the Biden administration and Congress through March 2025.
- The Senate Intelligence Committee is holding a closed briefing this afternoon. Members of the committee are slated to vote on Tulsi Gabbard’s nomination to be director of national intelligence. More below.
- The Senate Finance Committee will vote on advancing Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination to be secretary of Health and Human Services. Elsewhere on the Hill, the full Senate could vote as soon as today on Pam Bondi’s nomination to be attorney general.
- Fresh off a trip to Saudi Arabia earlier this week, Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa is in Turkey today, where he is meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
What You Should Know
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s nearly weeklong trip to Washington — he has now extended his stay through Saturday night — is focused on strengthening relationships with the new Trump administration, building ties with key lawmakers and maintaining a strong connection with evangelical leaders who are key backers of strong U.S. support for the Jewish state.
On Monday night, Netanyahu met with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, President Donald Trump’s pick to be U.S. ambassador to Israel; Christians United For Israel leader Pastor John Hagee and other prominent Christian leaders. The meeting took place at the Blair House, where Netanyahu is staying, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov and Marc Rod report.
Netanyahu also met with the administration’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, and White House National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, to begin talks on the second stage of the Gaza cease-fire and hostage-release deal. Following the meeting, which lasted several hours, Netanyahu’s office announced that he would send a team to Qatar over the weekend to discuss “technical matters related to the continued implementation of the agreement,” and Israel’s security cabinet would subsequently convene to determine its stance to guide negotiations for the second stage.
The prime minister has a narrow political needle to thread, as the further stages of the deal mean the release of more hostages, which is what Trump has vowed to do and most of the Israeli public wants. However, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has threatened to topple Netanyahu’s government if the war in Gaza is brought to an end, which is what the deal currently requires in the final stages of the agreement.
The Israeli prime minister met on Sunday with Elon Musk, head of the Department of Government Efficiency, with whom he appears to share a willingness to go head to head with entrenched government institutions. Netanyahu and Musk have met several times in recent years; the billionaire visited Israel after the Oct. 7 attack and attended Netanyahu’s address to Congress last summer.
This afternoon, Netanyahu and Trump will meet in the White House, and then hold a joint press conference.
Tomorrow, Netanyahu is set to meet with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon.
Netanyahu will spend much of Thursday on Capitol Hill, first meeting with Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and then members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, followed by a meeting with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and House Foreign Affairs Committee members.
Netanyahu is also scheduled to meet with House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), though there’s less of a focus on meeting with Democratic leaders, with the party now out of power in Washington and Netanyahu on the receiving end of much criticism from them in recent years.
Also of note: The prime minister has yet to schedule a meeting with Jewish communal leaders, according to several sources familiar with Netanyahu’s schedule, despite his lengthy stay in the United States. A source traveling with the prime minister said that he may meet with Jewish student leaders later in the week.
Netanyahu’s entourage includes his new international affairs advisor, conservative Israeli-American columnist Caroline Glick, as well as three doctors — in addition to one usual physician, there was a cardiologist and a urologist, following Netanyahu’s recent prostate surgery, from which he said last week that he is still recovering.
Netanyahu’s wife, Sara, who has been living in Miami the past two months, joined him in Washington at the Blair House, but was not at Joint Base Andrews when Netanyahu’s plane arrived on Sunday.
raising alarms
Rubio’s new undersecretary of state was fired from first Trump administration over ties to white nationalists

The recent appointment of a controversial far-right activist to a senior role in the State Department is drawing renewed scrutiny of his past ties to white nationalists, promotion of conspiracy theories and long trail of bigoted comments on racial minorities and women, among other groups. Darren Beattie, a former White House speechwriter in the first Trump administration who was fired for attending a white nationalist gathering, was named acting undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs — a role that includes overseeing “messaging to counter terrorism and violent extremism,” according to the State Department’s website. But his offensive statements on a wide range of issues have raised questions about his fitness for the key diplomatic post, even as he is viewed as an intellectual leader among America First loyalists who are seeking to shape the new Trump administration, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
Flip flop: Beattie’s appointment comes despite his past criticism of Marco Rubio, suggesting that the newly confirmed secretary of state is acquiescing to employing staffers who share radical views at odds with his long-standing record. In a statement posted on Monday to Revolver News, a far-right website founded by Beattie, he confirmed he had joined the State Department, which he called a “great honor.” Previously, Revolver had attacked Rubio as part of an alleged “globalist cabal now ‘cheerleading’ for nuclear war.” But in recent statements, Beattie has used a more admiring tone for his new boss, who had built a reputation as a leading foreign policy hawk in the U.S. Senate but has since evolved to conform with the ascendant populist wing of the GOP. “I think he is politically evolved,” he said, “and understands that his success is very much tied in with embracing the Trump agenda,” Beattie said during a podcast conversation with conspiracy theorist Max Blumenthal two months ago.