Trump’s choice for FBI director speaks volumes about his real second-term agenda
Trump has been releasing names of his nominees for the Cabinet and other senior posts in waves. He began with some relatively conventional choices, and then unloaded one bombshell after another, perhaps in an attempt to paralyze opposition in the Senate with a flood of bad nominees or to overwhelm the public’s already limited political attention span. He’s chosen a Fox News host with a sordid personal history to lead the Pentagon, an apologist for dictators in Russia and Syria to be the Director of National Intelligence, and an anti-vax, anti-science activist to be the nation’s top health official.
Patel’s nomination is shocking in many ways, not least because the FBI already has a director, Christopher Wray, who Trump appointed to a 10-year term only seven years ago and who he would have to fire almost immediately to make way for Patel. Worse, Patel is a conspiracy theorist even by the standards of MAGA world. Like other senior Trump nominees, his primary qualification for the job appears to be his willingness to do Trump’s bidding without hesitation. Patel will likely face a difficult path to confirmation in the Senate.
For Trump, naming Patel to the post serves several purposes. First, Trump is taking his razor-thin election win as a mandate to rule as he pleases, and Patel is the perfect nominee to prove that he doesn’t care what anyone else thinks. Even knowing what they know, Americans chose to return him to office, and he has taken their decision as a license to do whatever he wants—including giving immense power to someone like Kash Patel.
