As President-elect Donald Trump selects more key members of his upcoming regime, it’s clear that his intention has always been one thing only — and that is not creating a thriving environment for success but rather settling scores. Former Attorney General Bill Barr himself has called Trump’s latest appointment unqualified.
Donald Trump’s social media presence has always served as a real-time documentation of the mental, or at least moral, decline of possibly one of the worst world leaders of the new century, and his latest post certainly adds to the pantheon of these disturbing updates. Trump took to Truth Social to announce that Kashyap “Kash” Patel will serve as the incoming director of the FBI. Among the career achievements that seemingly convinced Trump of Patel’s qualifications was his role in uncovering the so-called “Russian hoax.”
If the over enthusiastic Matt Gaetz and RFK Jr. appointments weren’t enough of an indication, this move makes it even clearer: Trump is only interested in preaching to the already converted. His picks are becoming more baffling by the day, so it’s no surprise that when people started digging into Patel’s past, panic ensued.
That’s not even much of a stretch. Kash Patel is a deeply troubling figure who gained national notoriety for peddling unverified claims about a “deep state.” Patel already has ideas about how to address the so-called deep state in his new FBI role that have led people to label him a “conspiratorial lunatic.” In an interview clip posted by @harryjsisson, Patel can be seen saying that if given the opportunity to run the FBI, he would shut down the FBI Hoover building and reopen it the next day as a museum for the deep state. But if you’re wondering what exactly he means by the term “deep state,” it’s quite simple — whoever disagrees with Trump.
Out of all the loyalists Trump has hired, Patel seems to be the most fervent. Patel first got on Trump’s radar during his time on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, where he wrote a report rebuking the Justice Department’s decision to surveil a Trump campaign adviser. However, it was after Trump’s loss to Biden in the 2020 election that Patel truly cemented his place in Trump’s inner circle.
According to Yahoo, Patel spent the four years following Trump’s presidency testifying in his favor of the January 6 Capitol storming, claiming that the former POTUS had deployed troops to protect the Capitol days before the attack. Patel’s testimony was ultimately dismissed after the courts deemed him “not credible” as a witness.
Patel has also ventured into publishing, writing a book titled Government Gangsters about how the deep state allegedly attacked him. He even wrote a children’s book about Trump called The Plot Against the King, in which he refers to Trump as “King Trump.” Patel’s appointment is clearly guided only by his unwavering willingness to stroke Trump’s ego at every turn. One X user perhaps summed up this moment best, saying that while Kamala Harris’s campaign had its issues — some of them major — she would never have hired a criminal to head the FBI.
Patel had previously vowed that when they regained power, they wouldn’t just go after politicians who debunked allegations of a rigged 2020 election but also the media. The saying goes, “When you enter a circus, don’t be surprised to meet a clown,” but no one expected the clown to be Pennywise.