Donald Trump insiders have ruled out the possibility of former special agent Mike Rogers being named as FBI director.
Earlier reports suggested that Rogers was tipped to take the top job with controversial MAGA loyalist Kash Patel as his deputy.
But Dan Scavino, who was last week named as the president-elect’s deputy chief of staff, revealed that Trump has ruled out Rogers, contrary to earlier reports.
“Just spoke to President Trump regarding Mike Rogers going to the FBI. It’s not happening,” he said in a post on X. “In his own words, ‘I have never even given it a thought.’ Not happening.”
Donald Trump Jr also weighed in on Scavino’s post, writing: “Winning.”
He added: “Also relax about every rumor you hear online guys. Don’t assume anything you read is true till the release goes out. That said if it looks like we are missing something glaring like this definitely point it out.”
Neither Trump Jr nor Scavino addressed the reports about Patel.
Trump has made it clear he intends to shake up the bureau and could fire the current FBI director, Christopher Wray, who was nominated for the position by the president-elect in 2017.
Rogers, who some viewed as a “logical” choice, is a former Marine and FBI agent who served eight years in the Michigan state Senate before representing Michigan in Congress from 2001 to 2015. He narrowly missed out on a Senate seat to Democrat Elissa Slotkin in this year’s election.
In 2017, he was endorsed by the FBI Agents Association to become the next FBI director before Trump chose Wray instead.
The pick of Rogers, alongside Patel, could have pleased Senate Republicans who have been nervous about Trump’s plans to disrupt the FBI by putting a figure like Patel in the top job, sources had told CNN.
The sources added it could have gone some way to “appease” those in his MAGA circle who have been “frustrated” about the lack of right-wing allies who have been given top jobs in his administration.
Andrew McCabe, the former Trump FBI deputy director, called Rogers a “totally reasonable, logical selection,” adding that he has the experience and knowledge of the intelligence community required for the role.
But he was scathing when it came to Patel, adding that “no part of the FBI’s mission is safe with Kash Patel in any position of leadership in the FBI. And certainly not in the deputy director’s job.”
“It’s inconceivable to me that an outsider with no experience in the organization, no knowledge of the work and the scope of authority that’s involved there could perform adequately,” McCabe said.
Patel is a Trump loyalist who has railed against the so-called “Deep State” and has reportedly been lobbying the president-elect for the top FBI job, according to CNN.
But even among the most staunch Trump loyalists, Patel is viewed as a controversial figure.
On Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast last year, Patel said a team of “all-American patriots” in all levels of government in the next Trump administration will “come after” members of the press that he claims have “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,” said Patel, who joined the Trump administration in 2019 as a dubiously qualified intelligence official.
“We’re putting you all on notice,” he said. “And Steve, this is why they hate us. This is why we’re tyrannical. This is why we’re dictators, because we’re actually going to use the Constitution to prosecute them for crimes they said we have always been guilty of but never have.”
In a now-deleted social media post, JD Vance hinted about the kind of candidate Trump was mulling over for the role while he defended himself from criticism over his absence from a Senate vote.
“I was meeting with President Trump to interview multiple positions for our government, including for FBI Director,” Vance said.
“I tend to think it’s more important to get an FBI director who will dismantle the deep state than it is for Republicans to lose a vote 49-46 rather than 49-45. But that’s just me.”
If he so chooses, Trump can bypass background checks for those he has nominated for key roles in his administration.
Incoming cabinet members have traditionally faced intensive screening from the FBI with a binary purpose: to help with the Senate confirmation process and to vet nominees for security clearance.
Criminal histories, conflicts of interest, financial problems or other potentially disqualifying factors are typically investigated through this process.
But, despite established procedure, the president does have the power to bypass such checks and grant immediate security clearance to officials.
