White House yanks another controversial Trump nomination

President Donald Trump withdrew another one of his particularly controversial nominees, Axios reported on Monday — this time for the Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs.

Joel Rayburn, who served as a special envoy to the Middle East for Trump in his previous term, "was controversial due to his alleged involvement in obscuring U.S. troop levels in Syria from President Trump in his first term, when he served as Trump's special envoy for Syria," according to the report.

His nomination ran into a roadblock in Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who gave him tough questioning at his confirmation hearing and signaled his opposition to confirmation. The nomination advanced anyway in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee by 15-7, but Paul's opposition hindered his path to succeed in a full floor vote of the Senate.

While Senate Republicans have enthusiastically waved through most of Trump's nominees, including an embattled Justice Department lawyer to a judgeship despite multiple whistleblowers contending he urged the administration to defy court rulings, a few of Trump's nominations have fallen apart.

One of the most high-profile was Ed Martin to serve as the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, who was withdrawn after multiple Senate Republicans were unable to abide his improper warning letters to various Trump critics that they would face investigations.

Another was Paul Ingrassia, who was tapped to head the Office of Special Counsel, but was exposed for a history of racist and pro-Nazi posts online.