Amid the assorted controversies surrounding the openly unqualified and problematic women and men whom President-elect Donald Trump plucked for his Cupboard, it’s straightforward to overlook that one man jumped off what appears like a sinking ship simply three days after his nomination.
No, no—not former Rep. Matt Gaetz, who pulled his personal nomination for legal professional normal after eight days. The selectee in query was Chad Chronister, the Hillsborough County, Florida, sheriff whom Trump picked to guide the Drug Enforcement Administration with the hope he would “secure the border, stop the flow of Fentanyl, and other Illegal Drugs.”
However with rising hypothesis {that a} yea vote for Chronister would tick off the far-right, the Florida sheriff ended the dialogue and introduced on Tuesday that he was withdrawing himself from consideration for the position.
In a assertion on social media, Chronister stated that as “the gravity of this very important responsibility set in,” he had modified his thoughts about accepting the nomination. “There is more work to be done for the citizens of Hillsborough County and a lot of initiatives I am committed to fulfilling,” he stated. “I sincerely appreciate the nomination [and] outpouring of support by the American people.”
Chronister wasn’t outwardly controversial à la Gaetz or Pete Hegseth, whose nomination to be protection secretary is imperiled. So Chronister’s withdrawal unsurprisingly drew little media consideration. Certainly, it appeared the Florida man was content material with quietly taking his identify out of the working and returning to the Sunshine State to proceed his regulation enforcement profession.
That’s till Wednesday, when Trump insisted on getting within the final phrase on what he claims actually occurred to Chronister. In Trump’s telling, Chronister didn’t withdraw on his personal accord; the president-elect dumped him.
In a put up to his Fact Social platform, Trump stated he withdrew Chronister’s nomination as a result of “I did not like what he said to my pastors and other supporters.”
Okay, Trump!
Trump didn’t elaborate additional on particularly what he didn’t like. However his social media put up seemingly refers to how Chronister got here beneath fireplace for his determination to (gasp!) implement COVID-19 laws through the peak of the pandemic.
Chronister additionally confronted blowback from Trump’s acolytes, notably Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who stated that the sheriff needs to be “disqualified” for the DEA position after he ordered the arrest of a megachurch pastor who defied the state’s lockdown orders. The fees towards the pastor had been later dropped, but it surely’s telling that Trumpians in Congress are unwilling to look previous a sheriff who tried to comply with the regulation however can extra simply forgive different potential Cupboard picks who face credible sexual assault claims.
In fact, it’s doable that Chronister ruffled some conservative’s feathers in different methods too.
He was additionally beneath fireplace for a 2023 video during which he praised immigrants and mentioned how his workplace “does not engage in federal immigration enforcement activities.” On condition that vilifying immigrants has been a cornerstone of Trump’s agenda, it makes some sense that party-liners wouldn’t need to see him occupying area in a Trump administration. Actually, Sean Davis, the CEO and co-founder of The Federalist, went so far as to name Chronister a “woke, [Black Lives Matter]-excusing, DEI-enforcing, immigration law-ignoring buffoon.”
Regardless of all this, there are precise explanation why Chronister shouldn’t have a job in Trump’s Cupboard.
As The New York Occasions stories, Chronister has “no experience in the geopolitical aspects of the drug war.” However in fact, in Trump’s orbit, a light-weight résumé doesn’t appear to matter on the subject of holding among the most essential jobs within the nation.
Nonetheless, it’s unclear why Trump—amid the continuing issues with the individuals (see: Hegseth) who haven’t but dropped out of consideration—would take the time to publicly humiliate Chronister. Possibly it’s the president-elect’s twisted try to attract consideration away from Hegseth—or for Trump to get one other “win” in his pocket.
Both method, it’s odd, and the he-said-she-said sport solely makes Trump’s ongoing Cupboard choice course of look messier than it already is.
