When Donald Trump nominated Oklahoma state trooper Lance Schroyer to lead Immigration and Customs Enforcement a few months ago, it surprised members of both parties. Schroyer held a low profile and was relatively unknown in national law enforcement circles, and he appeared wholly unprepared to lead ICE, its growing workforce and its newly massive budget.

Complicating matters, the president’s nominee appeared to struggle behind the scenes to impress the Senate’s Republican majority, putting his nomination in doubt.

It was against this backdrop that the White House threw in the towel on Thursday, officially withdrawing Trump’s choice to lead ICE.

A Politico report added, “Schroyer’s nomination stalled after Senate Homeland Security Chair Rand Paul (R-Ky.), a foe of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, requested that the Department of Homeland Security provide his committee with more information about its investigation into two ICE and Border Patrol agents accused of killing two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis in January.”

This is an embarrassing outcome for everyone involved, but it’s an especially rough setback for Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who personally championed Schroyer and has a long-standing personal friendship with the Oklahoman.

Indeed, it’s worth emphasizing that after Mullin left Capitol Hill to join the president’s Cabinet, he brought Schroyer along and added him to the secretary’s DHS team. The Washington Examiner reported that Schroyer was “carrying his [Mullin’s] briefcase” before Schroyer was “abruptly promoted” to senior adviser at DHS earlier this year.

Soon after, he became Trump’s nominee to lead ICE — only to see his nomination fail before he was even given a confirmation hearing.

As the dust settles, it’s a safe bet there will be a lot of questions about who was responsible for this debacle, and a lot of the blame will likely fall on the DHS secretary.

As for the larger pattern, it’s worth appreciating an underappreciated dynamic: The White House is so bad at choosing nominees that even Senate Republicans won’t confirm some of them.

The list of Trump’s failed nominees has quietly become rather long. It includes a variety of notable figures, tapped for positions large and small, including Matt Gaetz, Nicole Saphier, Dave Weldon, Ed Martin, Chad Chronister, Kathleen Sgamma, E.J. Antoni, Paul Ingrassia, Jeremy Carl, Donald Korb, Scott Socha, Sean Plankey, Amer Ghalib and Bryce McFerran, among others.

By all appearances, the White House would much prefer the Republican-led Senate simply serve as a rubber stamp for the president’s choices, regardless of merit or qualifications. And looking at Trump’s Cabinet, it’s clear that GOP senators have been willing to go along with too many nominees who had no business taking office.

But as Schroyer exits the stage, the president and his team have received a fresh reminder that there are some depths to which even Senate Republicans don’t want to sink.

This post updates our related earlier coverage.

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