U.S. President Donald Trump looks on as he speaks to members of the media aboard Air Force One en route to Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, U.S., March 29, 2026. REUTERS Elizabeth Frantz
President Donald Trump’s pick to lead a top US security agency withdrew his nomination on Wednesday after more than a year of controversy — including from his own Republican Party.
Sean Plankey, Trump's pick to lead the government’s civilian cyber defense agency, withdrew himself from consideration after his candidacy languished in the Senate, wrote Politico's John Sakellariadis and Dana Nickel on Wednesday, adding that Plankey informed Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) and confirmed the information to POLITICO.”
Trump tapped Plankey last year in March. Although Plankey was initially viewed as a non-controversial choice, but he quickly ruffled feathers. Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) reportedly objected to Plankey’s policies regarding a Coast Guard shipbuilding project and resisted advancing Plankey’s renomination earlier this year.
“During Trump’s first term, Plankey served in cybersecurity roles on the National Security Council and the Energy Department,” Sakellariadis and Nickel reported. “Plankey’s withdrawal is the latest leadership shakeup at the top cyber defense agency, which has lost around one-third of its personnel since Trump returned to office. The agency has also cycled through interim leadership, with former acting CISA Director Madhu Gottumukkala reassigned in late February after a series of mishaps that alarmed current and former agency officials.”
Perhaps coincidentally, Gottumukkala is also reported to have clashed with Plankey, with CBS News’ Nicole Sganga finding in March that the two disagreed “over cybersecurity contracts, according to one person briefed on the dispute. The person said Plankey pushed for certain contracts to move forward while Gottumukkala was uncomfortable approving them. Because Plankey is a nominee who's awaiting Senate confirmation, he is generally expected to avoid involvement in agency operations, particularly those related to the department's contracting.”
Sganga added, “The agency has also faced scrutiny in recent months after reporting revealed Gottumukkala uploaded sensitive but unclassified government documents marked ‘for official use only’ to a public version of ChatGPT, triggering automated security alerts and prompting an internal review into the handling of sensitive information.”
In March, Plankey’s nomination was not viewed as doomed despite the months of tension. Yet as Sganga foreshadowed, “people familiar with the confirmation process say that Senate schedules and the upcoming campaign season may stand in the way of a speedy confirmation, but another obstacle arose Tuesday, during Noem's testimony before the Senate.”
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) ultimately threatened to stall President Trump's nominees and Senate business unless then Homeland security head Kristi Noem stopped ignoring his state’s multiple inquiries regarding immigration and disaster relief policy. After yet another Republican piled on to the unpopular Homeland Security incumbent, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), got her to falsely state Trump had approved $220 million of self-promotion advertisements.