Kash Patel Doubles Down: Now Running Both FBI and ATF in Trump’s Justice Shakeup
In a move that sounds like the plot of a political thriller (or a bad reboot of The X-Files), newly minted FBI Director Kash Patel has also been sworn in as the acting head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF).
That’s right—one man now leads two sprawling federal agencies, wielding massive influence over law enforcement and gun regulations.
Patel, a longtime Trump loyalist with a penchant for calling his boss’s critics “government gangsters,” took the ATF oath Monday, according to an anonymous source who probably just wanted to see how long it would take for the internet to implode.
The big question: Is this a temporary power grab or a long-term strategy? No word yet on whether President Trump plans to officially nominate Patel for the ATF gig, but given the administration’s love affair with the Second Amendment, it’s not hard to see where this is headed.
Meanwhile, Attorney General Pam Bondi wasted no time flexing her new authority, recently firing ATF chief counsel Pamela Hicks for supposedly “targeting gun owners.” Hicks, for her part, took the high road, calling her time at ATF the “highest honor” of her career.
Patel’s appointment has already triggered alarm bells among Democrats, who argue that his management experience is thinner than a gas station receipt.
But in Trumpworld, loyalty trumps credentials every time. And now, with Patel at the helm of both the FBI and ATF, the Justice Department’s playbook just got a whole lot more unpredictable.
Source: MDGN