Nearly a month after his election, Donald Trump continues to prepare for his arrival by surrounding himself with controversial people. After Charles Kushner at the United States Embassy in France, Robert Kennedy Jr. to the Ministry of Health or Elon Musk in the Department of Government Effectiveness, the US President-elect decided to place Kash Patel, a loyalist and slayer of the supposed “deep state”, heads the FBIan institution under fire from unprecedented attacks from conservatives.
“Kash is a brilliant lawyer, investigator and America First fighter who spent his career denounce corruption, defend justice and protect the American people“, wrote Donald Trump on his Truth Social network this Sunday, December 1, assuring that he had done an “incredible job” during his first term.
Supporter of the “deep state” theory
Born in 1980 in Cranston (Rhode Island), this son of relatively well-off Indian migrants obtained his lawyer's degree before occupying several positions of responsibility. During his first term, Donald Trump wanted to appoint him as head of the CIA, but it was ultimately up to Secretary of Defense that Kash Patel lands. It will then be national security advisor and chief of staff at the Pentagon then leaves office when Joe Biden takes power.
Remaining fiercely loyal to the Republican billionaire, he hosts programs in far-right media and writes a book on the “deep state”, a theory widespread among the president-elect's supportersaccording to which government bureaucrats were working in the shadow of Donald Trump.
In his book “Government Gangsters”, published in 2023, Kash Patel advocates “dismissal of officials who harm the president's agenda”. He also advocates moving the agency's headquarters from Washington to “prevent FBI leaders from engaging in political games.”
Crime and immigration
This announcement by the Republican president implies that Christopher Wray, current boss of the FBI, appointed by Donald Trump in 2017 for ten years, is fired or resigns. Under his leadership, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has become the target of violent attacks from conservatives for investigating the former and future president of the United States, who himself has not spared his criticism.
But Christopher Wray became the Republican billionaire's pet peeve for investigating his alleged ties to Russiaaccused of interference during his election in 2016. The divorce between the two men became evident when the first began to work on theAssault by Donald Trump supporters against the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
The appointment of Kash Patel is therefore part of Donald Trump's logic of only surrounding himself with those close to him. “This FBI Will End America's Growing Crime Epidemicdismantle criminal gangs and stop the evil scourge of human and drug trafficking across the border,” the future president also wrote.
For its part, the agency simply reacted by indicating that its current director would continue to focus “on the men and women of the FBI and the public in whose service [la police] work”.
Read more
