White House withdraws nomination of Lance Schroyer as ICE director
President Donald Trump previously nominated Lance Schroyer, a longtime law enforcement officer from Oklahoma, to be his nominee for ICE director. (Oklahoma Highway Patrol)
(WASHINGTON) — The White House has withdrawn the nomination of Lance Schroyer to be the next Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) director, according to a notice posted on the White House website Thursday.
The agency has not had a Senate-confirmed director since 2017. Former acting ICE Director Todd Lyons retired in May and David Venturella, a former private prisons executive, has been running the agency since then.
Schroyer, a former Oklahoma state trooper and close confidant of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, was nominated in June but faced pushback from the president’s base and Democrats over what they said was his lack of qualifications for the job. His nomination had stalled in the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
The White House did not give a reason for withdrawing Schroyer’s nomination. ABC News has reached out to the White House for comment.
ICE’s more than $75 billion budget is the largest of any law enforcement agency in the country.
The agency has become a focal point of the president’s second-term deportation push and the Republican-controlled Congress has given the agency the resources to carry out the administration’s agenda.
ICE has come under scrutiny during its push to deport those in the country illegally for what some Democrats say are heavy-handed tactics and a rush to hire candidates that weren’t qualified for the job.
In nominating Schroyer in June, Trump touted his 29 years of service as a law enforcement officer in Oklahoma and said Schroyer will enforce the administration’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants.
Schroyer, who served in the Marine Corps, is currently a senior adviser to Mullin, a former senator from Oklahoma. Schroyer was Mullin’s pick to lead ICE, a source with knowledge of the decision told ABC News.
Vice President J.D. Vance takes a question from a reporter during a news conference in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on June 18, 2026, in Washington, DC. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Vice President JD Vance on Thursday directly contradicted what is in the memorandum of understanding between the United States and Iran, touting it as a “win-win” and insisting Iran will only reap financial benefits if they “change their behavior.”
“They don’t get anything unless they change their behavior,” Vance said during a briefing at the White House Thursday morning.
That conflicts with what U.S. officials had said was in the MOU, which states that “immediately upon signing,” the Treasury Department will allow the export of Iranian crude through waivers — a financial windfall for Iran, which has faced sanctions for years. Vance digitally signed the MOU with Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf before President Donald Trump physically signed it Wednesday.
ABC News pushed Vance on the financial rewards that Iran is already receiving simply for reopening the Strait of Hormuz. As part of the agreement, the U.S. is removing its naval blockade of Iranian ports, and Iran will allow commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran closed after the war started, to be restored to pre-war levels. ABC News asked how Iran is allowed to sell their oil freely without making any new concrete nuclear commitments.
“They’ve made very concrete nuclear commitments. They have committed to the destruction of the highly enriched [uranium] stockpile that they have in their possession,” Vance said, adding that lifting the Strait of Hormuz blockade has promoted “the free flow of energy … across the world.”
However, Vance’s comments conflict with what the deal says. There is no firm commitment from Iran to get rid of their nuclear stockpile — just a commitment to negotiate “the disposition” of it over the next 60 days.
Also, allowing Iran to freely sell oil on the global market now is an economic windfall for Iran, which could generate more than $60 billion a year in revenue, experts told the Wall Street Journal.
Furthermore, Vance defended the oil waivers by arguing the U.S. will gain insight into Iran’s economy.
“So by lifting the blockade, that’s the significant thing that has changed. And by lifting the sanctions, we’re actually going to be able to see a little bit where their financial system actually sends money and receives money. That’s a real benefit to the American people. And that’s really the only thing that has changed by the change in sanctions,” Vance said.
He also repeatedly stressed that U.S. taxpayer money will not flow directly to Iran — “not a single penny, by the way, from the United States of America under any circumstance.” But a final deal could still allow Iran to reap huge financial benefits, including the unfreezing of assets and a $300 billion reconstruction account for Iran — the details of which will be sorted in the 60-day period.
Pressed on whether Iran can be trusted to change its behavior, Vance asked “isn’t it worth trying?”
Democrats — and some Republicans — have expressed concerns about the MOU. Chuck Schumer, the Senate’s top Democrat, said Iran “took Trump to the cleaners” in negotiations over the MOU in remarks on the Senate floor Thursday. Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy said of the MOU on Thursday: “Iran’s left stronger, we’re left weaker.”
“You know, I’ve seen skeptics of the deal. People say ‘the Iranians will never change their behavior.’ Well, maybe that’s true. And if so, they don’t get any of the benefits of the bargain. But isn’t it worth trying? Isn’t it worth seeing whether this incredibly weakened position that the president of the United States has put the Iranians under, whether that motivates them to change their behavior, not just vis a vis the West, but vis a vis the Middle East,” he said.
Iranian Supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei said Thursday that Iranian officials entered the agreement from a position of strength, portraying the U.S. president as having pushed aggressively for the deal out of desperation.
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, seen from the Theodore Roosevelt Bride in Washington, D.C. September 15, 2026. (Astrid Riecken For The Washington Post via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump said on Wednesday the Kennedy Center could “close” or be “ripped down” if his administration doesn’t receive recognition on the performing arts center as tensions over his name being removed mount.
“I think that the Trump administration should certainly have recognition. Because frankly, if we don’t do that, it’s going to close. It’ll end up being ripped down,” the president told reporters on the tarmac in North Carolina.
Trump claimed that the Kennedy Center was a “mess” without his intervention and “has lost 10s of millions of dollars, even hundreds of millions of dollars,” comparing it to New York’s Carnegie Hall.
The president’s comments come after a federal judge on Tuesday blocked the performing arts center’s board from adding a tribute to Trump on the building or site. He responded by saying he wouldn’t spend congressionally approved funding for the center’s renovation unless the building also bears his name.
Congress last year appropriated $257 million for the renovation.
About an hour after the judge’s ruling Tuesday, the board, which is controlled by Trump appointees, voted to close the center immediately for renovations, citing safety concerns after a piece of plaster from the ceiling of the grand foyer fell during a heavy rainstorm earlier this month.
On Tuesday, Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, said Trump “threw a tantrum because he lost in court” when discussing the Kennedy Center meeting.
“He wasn’t pleased with it. He was very explicit with his words, and I responded equally as explicit. He is in contempt of court for what he’s doing now in trying to just simply go over and close the Kennedy Center and to have people leave the center,” Beatty told reporters on the House steps Tuesday night.
Beatty said “there was a heated debate” during the meeting.
On Wednesday, fencing was seen being installed around the main building’s entrance.
The Alabama Capital Building in Montgomery, Alabama, U.S., on Saturday, Sept. 24, 2022. (Andi Rice/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — A three-judge panel in a federal court in Alabama ruled unanimously on Tuesday that state Republicans are still blocked from using their 2023 congressional map, which would have potentially helped Republicans in November.
The judges, including two appointed by President Donald Trump, concluded that the high court’s recent ruling on Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act has no bearing on this case, in which lower courts found the 2023 map represents a constitutional violation.
“Ultimately, we cannot see our way clear to requiring Alabamians to cast their votes in the 2026 elections under a districting plan tainted by intentional race-based discrimination,” the judges wrote in their ruling.
In 2024, Alabama had been required to use a map with two majority-Black districts, one of which was won by Democratic Rep. Shomari Figures. But in the wake of the Supreme Court decision, some state lawmakers and the governor delayed some of Alabama’s House elections, although others were held on May 19 as scheduled.
As of now, Alabama must move forward with the 2024 map, unless, the court noted on Tuesday, lawmakers want to attempt to enact a new congressional district plan at this late hour, which it is free to do.
Figures, in a statement to ABC News, said that he also expected further legal battles. The 2023 map was expected to potentially help Republicans flip Figures’ seat in November.
“I am pleased with the Court’s decision, but this case is still not over,” Figures said. “Although we expected the Court to reach this decision given the overwhelming evidence, we fully expect the State to immediately appeal the decision to the Supreme Court. This is a significant step in the right direction, but there is still a long way to go before this fight is settled.”
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said he is “disappointed” by the decision and said there will be an appeal effort.
“I am disappointed, but not at all surprised, that the three-judge panel has again struck down Alabama’s blandly unobjectionable congressional map that has been in place for decades. I find nothing in the U.S. Supreme Court’s vacatur order of May 11 that would provide a basis for this outcome; thus, we will immediately appeal this decision to the Supreme Court,” Marshall said in a statement.
“This is a very fluid situation, and I will do my best to keep the People of Alabama apprised of our efforts. Know this—in my mind, it is not a matter of whether we win this case, only when.”
