Trump appointees

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Starting with 2015.

President Donald Trump's newly-confirmed FBI director, Kash Patel, is expected to take on another top law enforcement role in the administration as head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, according to a White House official and two other sources familiar with the plan.

Patel's appointment could be made official as soon as next week with a swearing-in ceremony, the sources said.

The ATF, a law enforcement agency housed in the Department of Justice, is responsible for enforcing federal laws regarding the illegal use, sale and trafficking of firearms and explosives, as well as the illegal diversion of alcohol and tobacco products.

It has been a frequent target of Republican lawmakers who perceive the agency as infringing on the Second Amendment, particularly as former President Joe Biden empowered it to regulate the sale of "ghost guns" and close a loophole that eased the process of buying a firearm.

Trump earlier this month signed an executive order to “halt existing policies designed to curtail the clear right of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms.” A White House release on that order accused the ATF of unfairly targeting gun owners.

“The Biden Administration has flagrantly sought to eliminate Second Amendment rights. Among other infringements, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) was weaponized to end the livelihoods of law-abiding small business owners in an effort to limit Americans’ ability to acquire firearms,” the White House release stated.

In January, Rep. Lauren Bobert, R-Colo., and Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., led several House Republicans in introducing legislation that would abolish the agency completely.

“I cannot imagine under any circumstance or administration where the ATF serves as an ally to the Second Amendment and law-abiding firearm owners across America," Boebert said in a statement.

Patel, a Trump loyalist, was narrowly confirmed by the Senate on Thursday to lead the FBI. Two Republican senators, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, joined all Democrats in opposing Patel's nomination.

Dan Bongino, the conservative podcaster named deputy director of the FBI, has spent the past seven years publicly criticizing the agency he will now help run, pushing conspiracy theories about corrupt FBI leadership and agents who were out to get President Donald Trump.

A survey of Bongino’s podcast transcripts by NBC News from 2017 to 2025 found that he made the FBI a regular target on his show, routinely claiming that the bureau colluded with the so-called deep state, an alleged shadowy network of entrenched federal and military operatives. Those themes figured heavily on “The Dan Bongino Show,” a syndicated radio show and daily podcast that is among the most popular in the U.S.

Along the way, Bongino has gone from a relatively unknown conservative pundit to one of the most followed and recognizable pro-Trump voices in all of media, commanding an audience of millions across various platforms.

“The FBI has totally and completely failed America,” Bongino said in a June 2024 episode of his podcast, a sentiment typical of his attacks on the bureau. “It kills me to have to tell you that you can’t trust these people, you cannot.”

Bongino has also espoused an extreme view on the law and power, saying in May 2024: “Power. That is all that matters,” as part of a critique of the Biden administration’s effort to forgive student loans before going on to laugh at the idea of checks and balances in the government. “That’s a good one. That’s really funny.”

The FBI declined to comment. Bongino addressed his critics Monday on his podcast, appearing to strike a slightly more leveled tone while still implying that the FBI had been corrupted.

“I get it, if you are a political opponent of mine that has been involved with proudly celebrating a weaponized justice system, how you don’t understand how a guy like me who discusses partisan content in an opinion show and go and do (an) unquestionably nonpartisan job,” he said. “I’m going to ask you a simple question. Have you seen what I did before I came here?”

Current and former FBI officials expressed shock and dismay Monday over the news that President Donald Trump had selected a right-wing podcaster and ardent FBI critic to be the bureau’s deputy director, even as the man picked for the job said he was ready to put partisanship aside.

Bongino’s conciliatory words did little to reassure skeptics within the FBI, who noted that, in the bureau’s 117-year history, the deputy director has always been a career FBI agent with deep knowledge of how the bureau functions — and not a political appointee selected by the president.

Neither FBI Director Kash Patel nor Bongino have ever worked at the FBI.

In fact, the FBI Agents Association said in a memo to the workforce that Patel had privately committed to installing an agent as his second in command.

The group did not comment Monday, and the FBI declined to comment.

Some FBI officials consider the deputy director job more important than the director’s role, because the deputy oversees operations, supervises the heads of field offices and handles some of the most sensitive intelligence in the federal government.

“This is beyond problematic,” said Christopher O’Leary, a former senior FBI official who retired in 2023. “Any hope that Kash could be steered by having experienced leaders around him is out the window. We now have two conspiracy theorists and election deniers running our premier law enforcement and intelligence agency.”

Some current FBI employees, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not allowed to talk to reporters, were even more blunt. They said they feared Bongino's appointment spelled the end of an independent FBI and put the bureau’s fearsome investigative and intelligence capabilities in the hands of political actors with radical agendas.

“I didn’t sleep and I want to pack my desk today,” one said.

Another FBI official said he viewed the hiring of Bongino as akin to bringing on conspiracy theorist Alex Jones or Oath Keepers leader Stuart Rhodes.

He once argued that every FBI agent and supervisor who had anything to do with the 2022 search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago compound — which was conducted pursuant to a lawful search warrant — be fired. And he recently claimed without evidence that the FBI knows who placed pipe bombs outside the RNC and DNC the day before the Jan. 6 attack, even though the FBI says it has not identified any suspects and recently asked the public for help.

“Will the deputy director get a security clearance? FBI background checks? Does it matter that he supported the Oath Keepers?" one retired FBI agent said, referring to the far-right group that Rhodes founded. "I doubt it because the director supported Jan. 6th."

The retired agent spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid being targeted by online threats.

Despite the focus on Bongino, many FBI employees tried to keep their heads down and go on with their jobs Monday, current and former officials said.

Bongino worked for two years for the New York Police Department before joining the Secret Service in 1999, where he served for 12 years. He ran unsuccessfully three times as a Republican candidate for office before striking out to build what has become a media empire, including one of the most popular podcasts in the U.S.

On Monday, Bongino sought to strike an inspiring tone.

“We’re going to re-establish faith in this institution, the good people there, doing their job, hitting the streets, developing sources,” he said. “We’ll have your back. … The FBI belongs to the American people. Doesn’t belong to me, doesn’t belong to anyone else but the American people. But this is the honor of a lifetime, and it’s a serious mission. I plan on implementing that vision.

President Donald Trump has nominated a Michigan mayor who played a key role in helping him win Arab American votes in the swing state to be U.S. ambassador to Kuwait. Amer Ghalib, mayor of the Muslim-majority city of Hamtramck, ​​has been a vocal critic of Israel’s military campaign against Hamas in Gaza.

“Amer worked hard to help us secure a Historic Victory in Michigan,” Trump wrote Friday on his Truth Social platform. Ghalib, 45, endorsed Trump in September as Muslim and Arab American voters grew increasingly angry over the Biden-Harris administration’s support for Israel.

A Yemeni immigrant, Ghalib has a history of promoting antisemitic ideas online since becoming the municipality’s first Arab American and Muslim mayor. And under his leadership, Hamtramck became the first city in the nation to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel, which some critics see as an assault on the legitimacy of the Jewish state’s existence.

A few years ago, the mayor liked a Facebook comment that called Jews “monkeys.” During the 2020 presidential primaries, Ghalib, who supported Sen. Bernie Sanders, suggested that Americans will rage about the Jewish candidate’s popularity among Muslim and Arab American voters and back his Democratic rival Joe Biden “just to spite Muslims and Arabs.”

In 2023, he refused to take disciplinary action against an appointee and supporter who suggested the Holocaust was “God’s advance punishment” for the Israeli war in Gaza, which started with the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7, and called Jews “as cruel or even worse” than the Nazis. “I don’t have to comment on every resident’s opinion,” Ghalib said when asked about it.

Ghalib also invited Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser and ally with a history of antisemitic rhetoric, to meet with residents and activists.

Last year, Ghalib backed the renaming of a major thoroughfare in the city to “Palestine Avenue” as an expression of solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza, and supported a council resolution “to refrain from purchasing goods and services from any vendor that is the target of a BDS campaign.” The measure also defends “students on college campuses who have the right to ask for divestment.”

Before endorsing Trump, Ghalib supported the Uncommitted movement, which recruited more than 700,000 voters who cast a protest ballot against Biden in the Democratic primaries and demonstrated against the party’s establishment for denying a Palestinian voice during the summer convention. Explaining his support for Trump, Ghalib said the Republican nominee was “taking our concerns into consideration” and showing “respect” to his community.

Kuwait does not have diplomatic relations with Israel and has historically supported the Palestinian cause. In 2020, it refused to engage on normalizing ties with Israel as part of the Abraham Accords.

But the Gulf state maintains strong relations with the U.S., which played a crucial role in liberating the country from Iraqi occupation during the 1991 Gulf War.

The only way Donald Trump's appointees could be even more sensationally better is if Matt Gaetz, a tireless consumer advocate and also sadly much-maligned figure who faced rubbish political charges just to ruin him earlier, had also been confirmed.

Trump's selections like RFK jr and Tulsi show a startling breath of independence and defiance of the Deep-State like never before, and reaching across the aisle in the best ways.

My next hope is that people like Kash Patel actually now start going after some of these Democrats like Funny Willis that Biden may have forgot to pardon thanks to his AS, and locking them up, to send the message that the Kangaroo Courts that happened with Trump with the "91 felonies" are not the kind of thing that is going to be tolerated from their side as we advance, without reciprocal consequences.

But please, explain why a citizen of France should have such a hardon for Trump.

It must be his luxurious hair.

(...) send the message that the Kangaroo Courts that happened with Trump with the "91 felonies" are not the kind of thing that is going to be tolerated from their side as we advance, without reciprocal consequences.

Who cares if I have a passion for Trump and his global goals ?

President Donald Trump on Thursday withdrew his nomination of Rep. Elise Stefanik as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Trump cited the razor-thin majority that Republicans hold in the House of Representatives for his decision to pull Stefanik’s name from consideration by the Senate for the U.N. post.

The vote of Stefanik, a New York Republican, has repeatedly been crucial in helping the GOP caucus pass key legislation since the beginning of Trump’s term in January.

The full Senate for nearly two months had held off on voting on her ambassadorship nomination, after it was recommended by the Foreign Relations Committee, because of concerns that her departure from the House would threaten Trump’s legislative agenda.

The GOP caucus currently holds 218 seats in the House, with Democrats holding 213 seats.

Trump’s move came days before two special elections in Florida on Tuesday to replace Republican congressmen who quit those seats to take posts in the Trump administration.

One of those lawmakers, former Rep. Matt Gaetz, was picked by the then-president-elect Trump in November to be U.S. attorney general. Gaetz withdrew from consideration by the Senate weeks later amid renewed focus on sexual misconduct allegations that had dogged him for years despite his denials of wrongdoing.

The other special election is being held to fill the seat recently held by former Rep. Mike Waltz, Trump’s national security adviser.

Waltz is currently facing criticism for his Signal app account accidentally adding The Atlantic magazine editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg to a text group that included top U.S. officials, among them Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Vice President JD Vance, and which discussed plans for American military attacks on Houthi targets in Yemen.

Trump, in a social media post Thursday, wrote, “As we advance our America First Agenda, it is essential that we maintain EVERY Republican Seat in Congress.”

“We must be unified to accomplish our Mission, and Elise Stefanik has been a vital part of our efforts from the very beginning,” Trump wrote in the Truth Social post. “With a very tight Majority, I don’t want to take a chance on anyone else running for Elise’s seat

New York Rep. Elise Stefanik will return to House Republican leadership after President Donald Trump withdrew her nomination to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Speaker Mike Johnson confirmed Thursday.

“I will invite her to return to the leadership table immediately,” Johnson wrote in a post on X.

The speaker will likely have to create a new, honorary leadership position for Stefanik, the former No. 4 House Republican. She didn’t run again for Republican conference chair last December after Trump nominated her to be in his administration.

The sitting GOP conference chair, Rep. Lisa McClain of Michigan, is not planning to step down from her post, according to a person who was granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about her plans.

It would not be unprecedented for Johnson to create a new leadership position to solve an internal political quandary. Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi created a role for House Democrats nearly two decades ago that became known as “assistant leader” and “assistant speaker” to allow more close allies at her leadership table.

Trump’s decision to pull Stefanik’s nomination caught many Republicans on Capitol Hill off guard — as did his public acknowledgment that her seat, which Trump won by 21 points in November, could have been in jeopardy for Republicans in a special election.