Since Donald Trump’s second inauguration, the president has sent some truly outlandish nominees to the Senate for confirmation. In a handful of instances — Pete Hegseth, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, et al. — there were a smattering of GOP “no” votes, but in nearly every instance, the Republican-led institution ended up confirming Trump’s choice, following the White House’s demands.
Ed Martin, however, proved to be a bridge too far.
Early on in his second term, Trump appointed Martin as the interim U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., which was immediately recognized as bizarre. Not only did the Missouri Republican have literally no background as a prosecutor, he had all of the wrong qualifications: Martin was a conservative activist who supported Jan. 6 criminal defendants and was a prominent member of the so-called “Stop the Steal” movement.
After Martin got to work and demonstrated almost cartoonish levels of partisanship, Trump nominated him to serve in the post on a permanent basis. That, of course, meant he’d need to be confirmed by the Senate.
In the abstract, the president was probably optimistic. After all, if GOP senators were already willing to go along with some of the worst Cabinet nominees in modern history, they were likely to continue to serve as rubber stamps for a U.S. attorney nominee.
That’s not what happened. The president announced Thursday afternoon that Martin’s nomination is ending, and he’ll choose a new nominee in the coming days.
Trump pulls Eagle Ed Martin's nomination to be the D.C. U.S. Attorney.
— The Bulwark (@thebulwark.com) 2025-05-08T15:52:48.986Z
When Martin’s defeat appeared increasingly inevitable, Trump started investing real political capital into his nomination, using his social media platform to talk up the lawyer’s nomination, while privately making calls to Capitol Hill, hoping some presidential lobbying would help get Martin across the finish line.
That effort clearly failed — adding to his growing list of personnel missteps. What Trump might not have fully appreciated was just how ridiculous Martin’s record had become. Indeed, his “greatest hits” package featured misguided and unnecessary fights with the dean of Georgetown University’s law school, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, former President Joe Biden, and Democratic Reps. Robert Garcia of California and Eugene Vindman of Virginia — and that’s before one adds Wikipedia and prominent medical journals to his increasingly bizarre list of targets. During his brief tenure, Martin also: In a piece for New York magazine, Elie Honig recently described the lawyer as Trump’s “dangerous and ridiculous prosecutor.” Martin went out of his way to prove his many critics right, and it derailed his nomination. As the dust settles on the White House’s latest personnel fiasco, it’s worth appreciating the scope of the president’s failure. Not only did the president nominate a spectacularly unqualified radical to lead one of the nation’s most important prosecutorial offices, and not only did he spend political capital that’s suddenly in short supply, but Team Trump also appears to have failed to thoroughly vet Martin in advance — a familiar problem in this administration. This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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