Racist text scandal sinks Trump nominee for government watchdog post

Paul Ingrassia withdrew his nomination to lead a government watchdog agency on Tuesday after his inflammatory rhetoric came to a head this week in a report about race-fueled text messages he purportedly sent.
Ingrassia’s decision to remove himself from consideration to head the Office of Special Counsel came two days before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs was set to consider his nomination.
“I will be withdrawing myself from Thursday’s HSGAC hearing to lead the Office of Special Counsel because unfortunately I do not have enough Republican votes at this time,” Ingrassia wrote on social media.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., quashed all hope of Ingrassia’s confirmation on Monday, saying, “He’s not going to pass.” When asked on Tuesday if it would be a mistake for Ingrassia to appear for his hearing, Thune laughed and said, “Yeah.”
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Ingrassia, 30, said in a group chat, according to
Politico
, that he sometimes had a “Nazi streak” in him, and he used the term “moulignon,” an Italian slur for Black people, to call for doing away with Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Black History Month.
The leaked chat was only the latest controversy as Ingrassia has floated around the administration serving in two different roles.
In July, Ingrassia faced a
formal complaint
from a lower-ranking female colleague who alleged, according to Politico, that when they arrived at a hotel for a work trip in Orlando, she found she did not have a room and was informed by Ingrassia that she would be sharing one with him. The woman, who did end up sharing a room with him, later retracted the complaint and Ingrassia also disputed it.
Ingrassia has publicly defended social media influencer and self-described “misogynist” Andrew Tate, and previously worked at a law firm that said he was on Tate’s legal team before his July 2024 admission to the New York bar. Tate and his brother
face U.K. charges
of rape, actual bodily harm, human trafficking and controlling prostitution for gain, filed by the Crown Prosecution Service in May 2025. They deny the allegations.
Ingrassia was first hired as a
White House
liaison at the Department of Justice, where he was briefly put in charge of hiring Trump loyalists at the department. But he abruptly left and took a job at the Department of Homeland Security instead.
President Donald Trump nominated Ingrassia in May to lead the Office of Special Counsel, an independent agency (unaffiliated with the DOJ) that vets workplace complaints from federal employees.
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“Paul is a highly respected attorney, writer, and Constitutional Scholar, who has done a tremendous job serving as my White House Liaison for Homeland Security,” Trump wrote on Truth Social at the time.
Ingrassia rejected Politico’s characterization of the text messages, saying through his lawyer that even if they were real, “they clearly read as self-deprecating and satirical humor making fun of the fact that liberals outlandishly and routinely call MAGA supporters ‘Nazis.’”
Ingrassia has been scrutinized time and again for controversial writings, and pressure had been building on Trump to yank his nomination.
In a since deleted
X post
days after Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel, Ingrassia called the Palestine-Israel conflict a “psyop.”
A coalition of
Jewish organizations
was among those who called for Ingrassia’s nomination to be withdrawn.
“Mr. Ingrassia’s public statements and associations with people who espouse antisemitic, racist, and misogynistic views, raise serious questions about his ability to carry out these responsibilities with the integrity, impartiality, and commitment required of the office,” the coalition wrote.
A White House official confirmed to Fox News Digital that Ingrassia was no longer the nominee.
Alex Miller contributed to this report.