President Donald Trump shut down rumors he was planning to fire FBI Director Kash Patel on Wednesday, following reports that Patel’s behavior was becoming an embarrassment.
“Kash Patel? No, he’s doing a great job, I think,” Trump, 79, told reporters on board Air Force One when asked if he planned to replace the FBI Director.
The denial came after a report from MS NOW, citing three administration sources, said Patel, 45, was on “thin ice” in the White House after a series of high-profile failures, which include commandeering a government jet to visit his girlfriend for a “date night” in Pennsylvania.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also immediately hit back at the claims, calling the report “fake news” and “completely made up,” and responded by posting a picture of Trump and Patel giving a thumbs-up in the Oval Office.
“In fact, when this Fake News was published, I was in the Oval Office, where President Trump was meeting with his law enforcement team, including FBI Director Kash Patel,” Leavitt wrote on X.
“I read the headline to the President and he laughed. He said: ‘What? That’s totally false. Come on Kash, let’s take a picture to show them you’re doing a great job!’”
An MS NOW Spokesperson told the Daily Beast, “The organization stands behind its reporting.”
Flight records seen by the Wall Street Journal show Patel used the FBI Director’s jet to make seven trips to Nashville this year and nine to Las Vegas, including this weekend, when he was spotted hanging out with DHS Secretary Kristi Noem in a pink Lego Cadillac.
Patel’s reckless use of government funds was also called into question after he assigned an FBI SWAT team to act as his girlfriend Alexis Wilson’s private security detail, which he defended by claiming the country singer had “done more for this nation than most will in ten lifetimes.”
The excessive travel has irritated officials in the White House, the Wall Street Journal reports, who previously instructed Cabinet members to limit their trips – especially if they weren’t being used for official government business.
On October 31, Patel fired Steven Palmer, head of the agency’s Critical Incident Response Group, who oversaw the agency’s use of government planes. An FBI spokesman told the Journal that Palmer’s dismissal was unrelated to “the plane issue.”
Patel also came under immense scrutiny over his handling of the Charlie Kirk shooting on September 10, with a source reporting that Attorney General Pam Bondi and her deputy, Todd Blanche, had “no confidence” in Patel’s ability to lead the FBI. “Pam, in particular, cannot stand him. Blanche, either,” the source told Fox News.
Nevertheless, the president continues to publicly support Patel, despite expressing “irritation in private” with the FBI director. An administration official noted that Patel meets with Trump every two or three weeks.
White House Spokeswoman Abigail Jackson emphasized Patel’s value in a statement following the MS NOW report, writing, “President Trump has assembled the most talented and impressive Administration in history, and they are doing an excellent job carrying out the President’s agenda. FBI Director Patel is a critical member of the President’s team, and he is working tirelessly to restore integrity to the FBI.”
Andrew Bailey, the former Missouri state attorney who was appointed co-deputy director of the FBI in October, is considered by many to be Patel’s potential replacement, with fellow co-deputy director and former right-wing radio host Dan Bongino also thought to be in the running.
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