The White House
CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus resigns
The former Tucson, Ariz., police chief is openly gay

U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Chris Magnus submitted his resignation to President Joe Biden Saturday evening.
Magnus had reportedly been told earlier in the week by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas that he should resign or expect to be fired.
Multiple media outlets reported that Magnus said Friday that he had no plans to step down despite being told to resign by Mayorkas.
“I want to make this clear: I have no plans to resign as CBP commissioner,” Magnus said in a written statement to The Washington Post. “I didn’t take this job as a resume builder. I came to Washington, D.C. — moved my family here — because I care about this agency, its mission and the goals of this administration.”
In his letter of resignation released by White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, Magnus wrote: “Thank you for the opportunity to serve as your Senate confirmed commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection over the past year. It has been a privilege and honor to be part of your administration.
“I am submitting my resignation effective immediately but wish you and your administration the very best going forward. Thank you again for this tremendous opportunity,” Magnus added.
Pressure on the White House to remove the embattled CBP commissioner came from within the administration as well as from House Republicans on Capitol Hill. Last week a group of House Republicans led by Georgia Congressman Jody Hice sent a letter to the president demanding that he remove Magnus after an article in Politico revealed extreme dissatisfaction within the agency.
“According to a recent report by Politico, Commissioner Magnus continually fails to attend high-level meetings regarding the border crisis. Even worse, he was caught sleeping through some of the meetings he actually attended,” wrote the lawmakers in the letter first reported by the Daily Caller.
“The report goes on to detail Commissioner Magnus’ constant complaining about his fellow senior officials in Department of Homeland Security (DHS) instead of focusing on the CBP mission to secure our border,” the lawmakers added.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the CBP chief and Mayorkas argued over Magnus’ decision not to continue a retention bonus for U.S. Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz. The Times also reported Magnus had butted heads with Ortiz as well over how to reform the Border Patrol.
The day before, Magnus also attended a meeting of Border Patrol chiefs after Mayorkas had told him not to go.
“After me making extensive attempts to reach [Mayorkas] and discuss the matter, I went to the meeting so I could engage with the chiefs on various issues and concerns. I also met with Chief Ortiz to see how we might best work together moving forward,” Magnus told the Times.
When the two finally did meet, Mayorkas encouraged him to resign.
“I expressed to him that I felt there was no justification for me to resign when I still cared deeply about the work I was doing and felt that that work was focused on the things I was hired to do in the first place,” Magnus told the Times.
The Hill noted that Magnus was chosen by the president in part because he spoke out against the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants and its negative effect on relations between law enforcement and immigrant communities.
Still, Magnus’ background in policing rather than immigration and border enforcement raised some questions about his ability to take on a complex agency amid historically high border crossings, The Hill further pointed out.
Magnus is openly gay and married Terrance Cheung, former chief of staff to the mayor of Richmond. Calif., in 2014.
He was previously chief of police in Tucson, Arz.; Fargo, N.D.; and Richmond, Calif., and is an outspoken advocate of community policing and of immigration sanctuary cities and states.
The White House
White House has ‘no plans’ to recognize Pride month
President Donald Trump acknowledged LGBT people in 2019 tweet

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday said that President Donald Trump has “no plans” to recognize Pride month in 2025, a departure from policy and practice under the Biden-Harris administration.
“There are no plans for a proclamation for the month of June,” she said during a press briefing at the White House, “but I can tell you this president is very proud to be a president for all Americans, regardless of race, religion or creed.”
Trump during his first term declined to acknowledge the observance apart from a tweet in 2019 in which he wrote, “As we celebrate LGBT Pride month and recognize the outstanding contributions LGBT people have made to our great nation, let us also stand in solidarity with the many LGBT people who live in dozens of countries worldwide that punish, imprison, or even execute individuals on the basis of their sexual orientation.”
Democratic Former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama issued Pride month proclamations, and while Trump was the first Republican president to do so, his second term has seen a whole-of-government effort to restrict the rights of LGBTQ people.
Notably, given the president’s 2019 message about his administration’s work combatting the criminalization of queer people in countries overseas, so far those efforts have been stymied and defunded across the board since his return to the White House.
Anti-LGBTQ U.S. Rep. Mary Miller (R-Ill.) introduced a resolution on Tuesday that would establish June as “Family Month,” which she said would “reject the lie of ‘Pride’ and instead honor God’s timeless and perfect design.”
“The American family is under relentless attack from a radical leftist agenda that seeks to erase truth, redefine marriage and confuse our children,” the congresswoman told the Daily Wire.
The White House
Trump travels to Middle East countries with death penalty for homosexuality
President traveled to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and United Arab Emirates

Homosexuality remains punishable by death in two of the three Middle East countries that President Donald Trump visited last week.
Saudi Arabia and Qatar are among the handful of countries in which anyone found guilty of engaging in consensual same-sex sexual relations could face the death penalty.
Trump was in Saudi Arabia from May 13-14. He traveled to Qatar on May 14.
“The law prohibited consensual same-sex sexual conduct between men but did not explicitly prohibit same-sex sexual relations between women,” notes the State Department’s 2023 human rights report, referring specifically to Qatar’s criminalization law. “The law was not systematically enforced. A man convicted of having consensual same-sex sexual relations could receive a sentence of seven years in prison. Under sharia, homosexuality was punishable by death; there were no reports of executions for this reason.”
Trump on May 15 arrived in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.
The State Department’s 2023 human rights report notes the “penalty for individuals who engaged in ‘consensual sodomy with a man'” in the country “was a minimum prison sentence of six months if the individual’s partner or guardian filed a complaint.”
“There were no known reports of arrests or prosecutions for consensual same-sex sexual conduct. LGBTQI+ identity, real or perceived, could be deemed an act against ‘decency or public morality,’ but there were no reports during the year of persons prosecuted under these provisions,” reads the report.
The report notes Emirati law also criminalizes “men who dressed as women or entered a place designated for women while ‘disguised’ as a woman.” Anyone found guilty could face up to a year in prison and a fine of up to 10,000 dirhams ($2,722.60.)

Trump returned to the U.S. on May 16.
The White House notes Trump during the trip secured more than $2 trillion “in investment agreements with Middle Eastern nations ($200 billion with the United Arab Emirates, $600 billion with Saudi Arabia, and $1.2 trillion with Qatar) for a more safe and prosperous future.”
Former President Joe Biden traveled to Saudi Arabia in 2022.
Saudi Arabia is scheduled to host the 2034 World Cup. The 2022 World Cup took place in Qatar.
The White House
Trump nominates Mike Waltz to become next UN ambassador
Former Fla. congressman had been national security advisor

President Donald Trump on Thursday announced he will nominate Mike Waltz to become the next U.S. ambassador to the U.N.
Waltz, a former Florida congressman, had been the national security advisor.
Trump announced the nomination amid reports that Waltz and his deputy, Alex Wong, were going to leave the administration after Waltz in March added a journalist to a Signal chat in which he, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and other officials discussed plans to attack Houthi rebels in Yemen.
“I am pleased to announce that I will be nominating Mike Waltz to be the next United States ambassador to the United Nations,” said Trump in a Truth Social post that announced Waltz’s nomination. “From his time in uniform on the battlefield, in Congress and, as my National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz has worked hard to put our nation’s Interests first. I know he will do the same in his new role.”
Trump said Secretary of State Marco Rubio will serve as interim national security advisor, “while continuing his strong leadership at the State Department.”
“Together, we will continue to fight tirelessly to make America, and the world, safe again,” said Trump.
Trump shortly after his election nominated U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) to become the next U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Trump in March withdrew her nomination in order to ensure Republicans maintained their narrow majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.