Trump official who promoted fringe conspiracy theories now senior adviser at State Department

A former naval intelligence officer and conservative talk radio host who promoted fringe conspiracy theories in radio appearances is now a senior adviser at the State Department Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance.

A State Department Twitter account referred to Frank Wuco as an “AVC Senior Advisor” in a November 22 tweet about a trip to Romania’s Ministry of National Defense.

A CNN KFile review in December 2017, when Wuco was a White House senior adviser at the Department of Homeland Security, found he had repeatedly promoted several far-right conspiracy theories in radio appearances. Among the conspiracy theories Wuco pushed were claims that former President Barack Obama’s memoir was ghostwritten by former anti-Vietnam War radical Bill Ayers, that former CIA director John Brennan had converted to Islam and that Attorney General Eric Holder had been a member of the Black Panthers.

The Washington Post reported Wednesday that Wuco in 2016 suggested dropping nuclear bombs on Afghanistan after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. On the “Dougherty Report” radio show in 2016, Wuco was asked why the US doesn’t turn Syria and Iran “into glass already,” according to the newspaper.

“I don’t think it’s been our policy really to just start nuking countries,” Wuco responded, the Post reports. “I think if we were going to have done that, my preference would have been to have dropped a couple of low-yield tactical nuclear weapons over Afghanistan the day after 9/11 to send a definite message to the world that they had screwed up in a big way.”

The Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance’s mission statement says it is responsible for “deterring conflict” and that it works to build “cooperation among allies and partners in order to control the threat posed by weapons of mass destruction,” according to its website.

The State Department did not immediately respond to CNN for comment.

KFile previously reported that Wuco had pushed false claims during radio appearances that Obama was not born in the US, had made disparaging comments about the LGBT community, and lamented what he called the “Zimbabwe-fication” of America.

A DHS spokesman said the remarks from Wuco in the first KFile piece were “years-old comments cherry picked from thousands of hours” that had “no bearing on his ability to perform his job for the American people.”

The conspiracy theories Wuco has promoted emerged during a deeper review by KFile after that DHS statement.