The Scoop
Blake Masters is under consideration to head up the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for President-elect Donald Trump.
Masters met with the incoming president’s transition team on Thursday and is interested in helming the regulatory agency, two people familiar with the situation told Semafor. He lost two races for Congress in Arizona, this past fall and in 2022, while running as a Trump loyalist.
Masters was previously vying to lead the Presidential Personnel Office, as Semafor first reported. That low-profile, influential role focused on administration hiring ultimately went to Sergio Gor, the president and co-founder of Donald Trump Jr.’s publishing company.
Masters did not respond to a request for comment. A transition spokesperson declined to comment.
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Masters’ unwavering pro-Trump stance could help him win the role; similar allegiance helped Republicans like former Sen. David Perdue and former Rep. Billy Long snag top nominations this month. Trump endorsed Masters in the 2022 Senate race, though he went on to lose the general election to Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz.
He lost a House primary this year to Abe Hamadeh, though he did win a late co-endorsement from Trump. Masters is also aligned with Vice President-elect JD Vance and billionaire Peter Thiel, but also has some enemies inside Trump’s camp who will likely push back on giving him any key role.
If Masters does get the nod, he won’t have an easy path in the Senate — simply due to the history of the ATF director position, which involves oversight of politically sensitive gun policies. President Joe Biden pulled his first ATF nominee, David Chipman, before his second nominee, Steve Dettelbach, was confirmed in 2022.
Even that’s something of an accomplishment; Trump’s ATF nominee Chuck Canterbury was withdrawn in 2020, and Dettelbach was only the second ATF director ever confirmed by the Senate.
Masters may appeal to pro-gun Republicans, though, having campaigned as a pro-gun Senate candidate – with video proof. Republicans can afford up to three defections on any nominee.
Brandon Herrera, a gun advocate who narrowly lost a GOP primary race against Texas Rep. Tony Gonzales earlier this year, is also interested in the ATF position. He said last month he would “hack, slash, and cripple that agency in ways it could never recover from” if confirmed to the job.