What really happened to Trump’s DEA pick?
Amid the various controversies surrounding the brazenly unqualified and problematic men and women whom President-elect Donald Trump plucked for his Cabinet, it’s easy to forget that one man jumped off what looks like a sinking ship just three days after his nomination.
No, no—not former Rep. Matt Gaetz, who pulled his own nomination for attorney general after eight days. The selectee in question was Chad Chronister, the Hillsborough County, Florida, sheriff whom Trump picked to lead the Drug Enforcement Administration with the hope he would “secure the border, stop the flow of Fentanyl, and other Illegal Drugs.”
But with growing speculation that a yea vote for Chronister would tick off the far-right, the Florida sheriff ended the discussion and announced on Tuesday that he was withdrawing himself from consideration for the role.
In a statement on social media, Chronister said that as “the gravity of this very important responsibility set in,” he had changed his mind 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 said. “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 defense secretary is imperiled. So Chronister’s withdrawal unsurprisingly drew little media attention. Indeed, it seemed the Florida man was content with quietly taking his name out of the running and returning to the Sunshine State to continue his law enforcement career.
That’s until Wednesday, when Trump insisted on getting in the last word on what he claims really happened to Chronister. In Trump’s telling, Chronister didn’t withdraw on his own accord; the president-elect dumped him.
In a post to his Truth Social platform, Trump said he withdrew Chronister’s nomination because “I did not like what he said to my pastors and other supporters.”
Okay, Trump!