Of all the federal government agencies, none has aroused the ire of President-elect Donald Trump and his supporters more than the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). From a pro-Trump perspective, that ire is well-earned. It is no surprise, then, that perhaps the most anticipated nomination the incoming president would unveil would be the FBI director, the man or woman tapped to lead – and reform – the agency most suspected of having been almost completely weaponized against the 45th and soon-to-be 47th president. On November 30, Trump announced he had chosen Kash Patel for that not-inconsiderable task. The selection is certain to drive the president-elect’s critics into a frenzy, and it’s not difficult to understand why.
Kash Patel, real first name Kashyap, is a lawyer with considerable national security and investigative experience. He worked as an aide to former Republican Rep. Devin Nunes of California when the lawmaker served as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. During the first Trump administration, Patel was chief of staff for then-acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller and served as the senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council. Previously, he worked as a federal prosecutor with the US Justice Department’s national security division.
Patel is the author of Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy.
Establishment media coverage of Kash Patel frequently employs the word “loyalist” to describe him. The underlying implication, of course, is that Trump has chosen a man who is loyal to him for this top federal law enforcement role because the future president intends to have the FBI do his bidding. It’s just more anti-Trump fearmongering. What past president has not appointed at least a few “loyalists” to key Cabinet or administration positions? Perhaps these journalists forgot that Barack Obama’s attorney general, Eric Holder, described himself as “the president’s wingman.”
In a Nov. 30 Truth Social post, Mr. Trump described Kash Patel as “a brilliant lawyer, investigator, and ‘America First’ fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending Justice, and protecting the American People.”
First and foremost, however, is the Bureau’s core mission, which is law enforcement. At the federal level, this, of course, encompasses anti-terror operations as well as other threats to national security – real threats, as opposed to those dreamed up for political gain. Trump wrote: “This FBI will end the growing crime epidemic in America, dismantle the migrant criminal gangs, and stop the evil scourge of human and drug trafficking across the Border. Kash will work under our great Attorney General, Pam Bondi, to bring back Fidelity, Bravery, and Integrity to the FBI.”
In a stupendous feat of projection, Trump’s critics are accusing the past and future president of weaponizing federal agencies. If depoliticizing them and refocusing once-venerated agencies like the FBI on their original missions is weaponizing them, it is tough to argue that this is a problem.