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!
Trump didn’t elaborate further on specifically what he didn’t like. But his social media post likely refers to how Chronister came under fire for his decision to (gasp!) enforce COVID-19 regulations during the height of the pandemic.
Chronister also faced blowback from Trump’s acolytes, notably Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who said that the sheriff should be “disqualified” for the DEA role after he ordered the arrest of a megachurch pastor who defied the state’s lockdown orders. The charges against the pastor were later dropped, but it’s telling that Trumpians in Congress are unwilling to look past a sheriff who attempted to follow the law but can more easily forgive other potential Cabinet picks who face credible sexual assault claims.
Of course, it’s possible that Chronister ruffled some conservative’s feathers in other ways too.
He was also under fire for a 2023 video in which he praised immigrants and discussed how his office “does not engage in federal immigration enforcement activities.” Given that vilifying immigrants has been a cornerstone of Trump’s agenda, it makes some sense that party-liners wouldn’t want to see him occupying space in a Trump administration. In fact, Sean Davis, the CEO and co-founder of The Federalist, went as far as to call Chronister a “woke, [Black Lives Matter]-excusing, DEI-enforcing, immigration law-ignoring buffoon.”
Despite all this, there are actual reasons why Chronister shouldn’t have a role in Trump’s Cabinet.
As The New York Times reports, Chronister has “no experience in the geopolitical aspects of the drug war.” But of course, in Trump’s orbit, a light résumé doesn’t seem to matter when it comes to holding some of the most important jobs in the nation.
Still, it’s unclear why Trump—amid the ongoing problems with the people (see: Hegseth) who haven’t yet dropped out of consideration—would take the time to publicly humiliate Chronister. Maybe it’s the president-elect’s twisted attempt to draw attention away from Hegseth—or for Trump to get another “win” in his pocket.
Either way, it’s odd, and the he-said-she-said game only makes Trump’s ongoing Cabinet selection process look messier than it already is.
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