Why Kash Patel, Trump’s Pick for FBI Director, Has a Lot of Folks Shook

President-elect Donald Trump has made waves for setting up a very controversial cabinet for his final four years in office. In his latest headline-making move, the MAGA leader just named former Chief of Staff to the U.S. Secretary of Defense Kashyap “Kash” Patel as his pick for director of the FBI.

A lawyer and former federal prosecutor, Patel has more experience serving in the White House than almost all of Trump’s Cabinet picks. However, his placement is still courting controversy...and here’s why.

There would be less conversation about Patel becoming director if we didn’t already have an active FBI director. If Trump wants to name Patel as the new leader of the FBI, he’d have to first get rid of FBI Director Christopher Wray— who was ironically tapped by Trump for the position in 2017, according to CBS News.

FBI directors have 10-year terms, and with three more years to go for Wray, Trump would either have to fire him by force him to resign. Additionally, Patel would need to be confirmed by the Senate, which could prove easy since the Senate is now in Republican hands.

But why would Trump even want to replace Wray in the first place? The answer is simple: Patel is a MAGA supporter and Trump loyalist. Sources inside Trump’s team even say Patel will “do anything to please” the GOP leader, according to CBS News.

It’s important to note that Trump is largely responsible for propelling Patel’s career in politics. While serving under Trump’s first term, Patel was even set to be named the deputy director of the CIA until former Vice President Mike Pence and other members of Trump’s Cabinet intervened, according to the Atlantic.

Additionally, Patel once penned a children’s book called “The Plot Against the King” in which he dramatically tells the story of a Wizard named Kash trying to save King Donald— as in Donald Trump— from the wicked ways of Hillary Queenton— yes, like Hillary Clinton.

Although several of the MAGA faithful are in favor of Trump’s pick, the rest of the political world is singing a different tune. “I think the president picked a very good man to be the director of the FBI when he did that in his first term,” Republican Sen. Mike Rounds told ABC’s “This Week.” “I don’t have any complaints about the way that he’s done his job right now.”

Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut had more interesting words for Trump and Patel on “Meet the Press.” “Patel’s only qualification is because he agrees with Donald Trump that the Department of Justice should serve to punish, lock up, and intimidate Donald Trump’s political opponents.” He continued, “the cost to the American public is pretty simple.”

Sen. Dick Durbin, the current majority whip in the upper chamber, urged the Senate to reject Trump’s pick of Patel. In a statement, Durbin said, “we already have a FBI director.” He even went as far as to accuse Trump of wanting to “replace his own appointee with an unqualified loyalist.”