Kash Patel, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the FBI, spent years criticizing Elon Musk in public interviews and conversations, a new report reveals.
Patel, who hosted the podcast Kash’s Corner, has called Musk a monopolist, claimed he mass-harvested data and accused him of making his fortune from federal contracts funded by taxpayer dollars, according to Rolling Stone.
One example shows Patel claiming Musk is the “biggest” Department of Defense contractor during a December 2021 Fox News interview. While Musk isn’t the largest, his company SpaceX does have billions of dollars in federal contracts, Rolling Stone reports.
“I mean, we’re all paying for it, this is why he’s so rich,” Patel said in the 2021 interview.
Then, in a 2022 episode of his podcast, Patel claimed Musk’s takeover of Twitter (now X) gave the world’s richest man too much access to Americans’ data, according to Rolling Stone.
“He’s already got Tesla, he’s already got the SpaceX program and the government DOD contracts, which I believe to be the largest portion of his income,” Patel claimed. “And now he’ll have Twitter. So what scares me is, you want to talk about a monopoly, he is the ultimate monopoly.”
Patel went on to claim, seemingly without evidence, that Musk may sell the data to the Chinese Communist Party, according to Rolling Stone.
But despite this bitter history, Musk publicly endorsed Patel to lead the FBI under Trump earlier this month.
Trump announced Patel’s nomination to lead the agency in December. Patel is a staunch ally of Trump’s and has promised a team of “all-American patriots” across government will “come after” members of the media he claims “lied about American citizens” and “helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections.”
“We’re going to come after you, whether it’s criminal or civilly, we’ll figure that out,” Patel said on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast.
Patel is also a fervent conspiracy theorist, promoting several false theories including suggesting that the January 6, 2021, Capitol riots were planned by federal agents, Rolling Stone reports.
Lawmakers have also shown concerns about Patel’s conspiracies. During a Senate confirmation hearing, Senator Dick Durbin about Patel’s knowledge of Stew Peters, a far-right podcaster.
“Are you familiar with Stew Peters?” the Democrat asked.
“Not off the top of my head,” Patel responded.
“You made eight separate appearances on his podcast,” Durbin shot back. “He promoted outrageous conspiracy theories and worked with a prominent neo-Nazi.”
Patel has also suggested he wants the FBI’s authority to be severely restricted after Republicans claimed the agency has improperly targeted conservatives under the leadership of departing FBI Director Christopher Wray.
Patel previously served as chief of staff at the Department of Defense during Trump’s first term, deputy director of National Intelligence and senior director for Counterterrorism at the National Security Council.
His confirmation vote is expected in the coming days after the Senate voted to end debate on Tuesday.
