Paul Ingrassia dropped out of consideration after racist text messages he sent surfaced this week. Key US politics stories from 21 October 2025 at a glance
Donald Trump’s nominee to lead a federal watchdog agency, Paul Ingrassia, withdrew on Tuesday following a report that Ingrassia described himself as having a “Nazi streak.”
Ingrassia said in a social media post that he was pulling out of a scheduled Thursday hearing before a Senate panel that was set to consider his nomination because “I do not have enough Republican votes at this time.”
The post came after Senate majority leader John Thune on Monday called for the White House to pull the nomination. Thune’s remarks marked a rare sign of opposition in a Republican-controlled Senate that has shown little interest in challenging Trump’s nominees and his agenda.
Ingrassia, currently a White House liaison at the Department of Homeland Security, was the subject of a report on Monday published in Politico. The report featured text messages where he allegedly described himself as having “a Nazi streak” and suggested Martin Luther King Jr Day should be “tossed into the seventh circle of hell”.
