Trump's latest gamble

…and what it highlights about his priorities for the incoming administration

Saturday night of the long Thanksgiving weekend is usually a time when people are enjoying quiet, satiated moments with loved ones, having finally tired of leftovers. But our president-elect is nothing if not inconsiderate about his fellow Americans. So many of you likely received the unwelcome notification on Saturday that Trump nominated Kash Patel to be our next FBI Director. For those of you unfamiliar with this sycophantic horror show, I’ll defer to Bill Barr’s reflections on him from his book.

During his first administration, Trump attempted to appoint Patel, about which Barr wrote:

“I categorically opposed making Patel deputy FBI director. I told Mark Meadows it would happen ‘over my dead body…’ Someone with no background as an agent would never be able to command the respect necessary to run the day-to-day operations of the bureau. Furthermore, Patel had virtually no experience that would qualify him to serve at the highest level of the world's preeminent law enforcement agency...The very idea of moving Patel into a role like this showed a shocking detachment from reality.”

Let me reiterate that the above assessment came from Bill Barr, Trump’s handpicked attorney general. Yes, the guy who straight-up lied about the Mueller report and doctored its summary to shield its full contents from the American public. Barr downplayed Mueller’s findings about Russian contacts with Trump campaign associates and glossed over the damning evidence of obstruction of justice. So when the notably unscrupulous Bill Barr declares that he would only approve the appointment of Kash Patel to deputy director over his dead body…it’s a very strong indication that we’re talking about somebody profoundly, egregiously unqualified.

If Bill Barr getting his hackles that far up doesn’t move you, read Patel’s own words from a War Room interview in which Steve Bannon asked a charming question about whether K$H (as he styles his name on merch for his tax-exempt charity), would be able to “deliver the goods” on “serious prosecutions and accountability.”

Cool.

“Yes, we got the bench for it, Bannon…But the one thing we learned in the Trump administration the first go-round is we got to put in all-America patriots, top to bottom. And we got them for law enforcement, we got them for Intel collection, we got them for offensive operations, we got them for DoD, CIA, everywhere…We will go out and find the conspirators, not just in government but in the media. Yes, we're going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections. We're going to come after you, whether it's criminally or civilly, we'll figure that out. But yeah, we're putting you all on notice.”

Find the conspirators?? Go after the media for the “crime” of helping Joe Biden rig the presidential election? Trump no doubt heard that interview and shortly thereafter licked his greasy thumbs and announced via Truth Social that this minion should be at the helm of our FBI. Anybody who continues to peddle the outright lie that Biden lost in 2020 has passed Trump’s long-running world loyalty test. Bonus points for openly stating on air that he is willing to criminally prosecute anyone—be they lawyers or members of the media—who correctly litigated in favor of or accurately reported on President Biden.

This is what an ACTUAL witch hunt looks like: Denying our free and fair election in 2020 and threatening to prosecute those who faithfully executed their duties or acknowledged objective reality. It is an explicit, out-and-out weaponization of our government. If somebody with those intentions doesn’t frighten and appall you, I don’t know what will.

What’s telling about Trump’s burgeoning little cabinet of horrors is that while his picks for certain roles are far less controversial, the roles for which he’s swinging for the fences share an alarming common thread. Matt Gaetz, then former lawyer and avid election denier Pam Bondi as attorney general; his personal lawyer Todd Blanche as deputy attorney general; now Patel at FBI…these are positions where Trump will need staunch loyalists willing to break whatever laws necessary to wield the awesome power of the US government as a personal cudgel; to intimidate, threaten, harass, and even jail his perceived enemies. And, I don’t know, something about the gaze on K$H’s face above doesn’t inspire much confidence that he’ll be spending significant time consulting his moral compass before carrying out Trump’s inevitably unlawful orders. So this is where he’s choosing to spend his political capital.

By contrast, Trump doesn’t care what happens in the Secretary of State role: that’s why Rubio was picked. Do we think he had a robust consultation with his incoming top diplomat before firing off his proposed tariffs on China, Canada, and Mexico? Of course not. And Chiefs of Staff, familiarly termed ‘javelin catchers,’ have a history of playing crucial roles as confidantes and consiglieres. Safe to say that won’t be the case with Susie Wiles. She can be in the room because she knows the president-elect and his wanton ways, but he won’t seek her counsel. She’s a placeholder. Trump will do whatever the fuck Trump wants to do. See: his entire life.

Putting forward Patel to lead the Federal Bureau of Investigation also underscores Trump’s intention to use the fast-approaching term to settle his grievances. He’s focused on enacting his retribution tour with as few obstacles as possible. And unless something is done, these pathetic sycophants who he’s put up for crucial positions in law enforcement will abet all of it. Not only will there be no pushback from any of them, they’ve already proven themselves as eager as he is to weaponize the government and provide Trump with a safe space for his criminal whims.

Hopefully I’ve been clear about what we need to do as we prepare to battle the incoming administration. We have to recognize our limited capital and accept that if we treat every decision Trump makes as a five-alarm fire, then nothing will feel like a five-alarm fire. Instead, we need to prioritize and focus on the issues that pose the greatest threat to our democracy.

Friends, this is a fire worthy of our focus.

Kash Patel is a more acute threat than Pam Bondi, Tulsi Gabbard, or Pete Hegseth, insofar as we’re ranking them, or in case there are only one or two more of his nominations against which we collectively dig our heels in the dirt. Please don’t misunderstand: each of the above nominations has a place in my nightmares. They all pose very real threats, both as individuals and as a bundle of pawns nestled beneath Trump’s thumb. Not one is qualified to run these departments or agencies anywhere besides straight into the ground.

However, given the imperative to align our resistance efforts, if there’s one to raise hell over, it’s Kash Patel. He must be our focus while we’re able to drive the narrative. Rather than surviving confirmation hearings, Matt Gaetz was run out of Washington and has been relegated to offering “pep talks and holiday greetings” on the D-list celebrity shoutout site, Cameo. And yes, his withdrawal is likely because he wants to be Florida’s governor, knew his ethics report was poised to come out, and was told by his puppeteer that he didn’t have the votes. Nevertheless, the noise made by Democrats played a massive role in forcing the issue to such an extent that he became a “distraction” for Trump. And we must do the same here. Which is why it’s so important that we stay tuned in right now.

If you’re anything like me, you’re exhausted and oft-discouraged and just want it all to go away. But this is a moment for paying attention and sounding alarms. The Trump White House will be a Musk-infused shit-show, but it will be so much worse if nobody bothers to moderate Trump’s worst impulses during this crucial phase.

It may not feel this way, but we still have power, we still have influence, and we need to take advantage of that. Call your representatives, stay engaged, and let’s work to send Patel back to garble with Steve Bannon and hash out their conspiracy theories, having been rejected and rendered powerless over our rule of law.

If none of the above has inspired you to stay active, I’ll give the last word to the indefatigable Marc Elias, speaking on how much we can count on Republican senators to handle this potential car crash—and what we all need to do to keep democracy afloat.