Their common traits are glaring: hostility to traditional elites, loyalty to Donald Trump, lack of scruples and dubious past commitments. But also a lack of qualifications for the post they have been chosen for. These are three of the most sensitive appointments announced by the president-elect, yet they concern the United States's national security, its engagement with allies and its authority in the world.
Kash Patel has been proposed as the future director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which he has promised to largely dismantle. Tulsi Gabbard is slated to become the director of national intelligence, despite having promoted the Kremlin's arguments about the war in Ukraine and of the Syrian regime before that. Fox News anchor and commentator Pete Hegseth, surrounded by sex scandals, has been chosen as the future secretary of defense.
After the forced withdrawal of Matt Gaetz for attorney general, Trump made no attempt to advance less divisive nominees. On the contrary: On Saturday, November 30, the president-elect confirmed his desire to bring an early end to the 10-year term of FBI boss Christopher Wray, which runs until 2027 and which he himself appointed in 2017. In his place, Trump wants to place a loyalist, Patel, who enjoyed a lightning ascent during Trump's first term, rising from the rank of investigator in the House of Representatives to chief of staff at the Pentagon.
Patel will restore "fidelity, bravery and integrity" to the FBI, Trump commented. But Patel's personal mission statement doesn't read like that. In late 2023, as a guest on Steve Bannon's podcast, the billionaire's former special adviser, Patel promised ruthless vengeance in the event of another Trump victory in November 2024. "We will go out and find the conspirators, not just in government but in the media," he said, of those "who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections – we're going to come after you," adding " Whether it’s criminally or civilly, we'll figure that out."
In addition to this witch-hunt, Patel has promised to send the thousands of agents working in the Washington headquarters back to the States. Given the FBI's role in the fight against terrorism and in the cyber domain, such a demolition operation could jeopardize threat detection and prevention. But for years, a growing fringe of the Republican Party has been denouncing the FBI's excesses in terms of population surveillance. In their view, it has become a thought police over the years, abusing the exceptional powers it received in the post-9/11 era.
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