Concerns are brewing among Trumpworld insiders about an escalating feud between two of the president’s top law enforcement officers.
Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel have found themselves the focus of increased scrutiny in recent months, from both the media and President Donald Trump’s base, on a host of issues ranging from the Jeffrey Epstein files to law enforcement’s handling of the Charlie Kirk assassination.
And following Patel’s latest string of negative headlines, which involved taking an FBI jet to Pennsylvania to watch his girlfriend sing at a wrestling match and jumping the gun on announcing FBI actions to foil an alleged terrorism plot on Halloween, two other senior Trump administration officials told the Washington Examiner that they have heard “rumors” that Bondi is exploring ways to replace Patel atop FBI.
“I don’t want to say it’s exactly saving her own skin, because I do think [Bondi] has a very good personal relationship with President Trump, but these repeated, just bonehead screwups from the FBI director reflect poorly on her and the entire department,” one senior Trump official explained. “So I’m not surprised that she wants him gone. To be honest, I would have been a little shocked to hear the opposite.”
The second Trump official pointed to Bondi’s appointment of former Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey to serve as co-deputy director of the FBI in August. Bailey took office in September and shares duties with co-deputy director Dan Bongino, a close ally of Patel who himself has feuded with Bondi over the Epstein case.
“Kash barely squeaked through this spring. Getting another FBI director confirmed doesn’t seem likely ahead of the midterms, and it seems to me that Bailey was brought in to be the guy, not Bongino, to take over on an acting basis if Patel gets fired,” that person assessed.
One longtime, out-of-government Trump adviser told the Washington Examiner that they had not specifically heard about any attempts by Bondi to undermine or oust Patel, but confirmed that the pair have “never been tight” and that their relationship has devolved since the spring.
That person stated that Bondi, “Isn’t a f***ing intellectual heavyweight,” but remains an “adept operator.”
“She was, obviously, [Florida’s] attorney general for a long time. Pam knows [chief of staff] Susie [Wiles] very well. Pam has a good relationship with POTUS, and oftentimes, the ‘small p,’ internal politics is more important than the broader politics, and Pam’s always been good at that, so I would not want to be on the other side of a fight against her,” they continued. “The problem with Kash is, it’s not like he has a real base of support. I feel like he sort of squandered all the goodwill he had with MAGA personality types with Epstein and just general weirdness. I mean, ‘I’ll see you in Valhalla, brother?‘ That was the cringiest thing ever. Just, holy s***.”
The Valhalla comment was in reference to Patel’s tribute to Kirk upon announcing the arrest of the man accused of murdering the Turning Point USA cofounder.
White House officials told the Washington Examiner that Bondi has not approached the president about replacing Patel, but did not answer questions about whether any White House advisers have had to step in to mediate between the attorney general and FBI director recently.
“President Trump has full faith and confidence in both Attorney General Bondi and FBI Director Patel. The Attorney General is doing a tremendous job leading the DOJ and making America Safe Again, and Director Patel is restoring integrity to the FBI,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement. “The entire Trump Administration will continue working closely together to implement the President’s agenda, despite nonsense gossip amplified by the media.”
Justice Department officials chose not to comment on this story. Ben Williamson, the FBI’s assistant director for public affairs, told the Washington Examiner that the bureau is “grateful for Attorney General Bondi’s leadership of the Justice Department, and our teams are working day and night together to deliver on President Trump’s agenda and keep Americans safe.”
Persons familiar with both the main DOJ and the bureau, granted anonymity to discuss internal matters freely, sought to downplay the apparent feud.
“AG Bondi has bigger things to worry about, like running the DOJ and defending the administration’s agenda in court, which she’s doing with a remarkably high success rate,” a DOJ source stated. “The FBI is part of DOJ, and the most important thing above all is to ensure that no disclosure of information imperils a conviction.”
An FBI source claimed to have “been told that [Bondi] has been annoyed [by Patel] many, many times,” and pointed to the messaging dynamics between the FBI and the wider department as a root cause of the tension.
“We do something, arresting 50 people in a nightclub, for example, and then we’re done. And then, basically, DOJ is the one that puts out the press release, puts out all the statements, runs the entire [messaging] operation,” the source explained. “I can see an argument for that to some level, but at the same time, if you’ve got 30 FBI agents out there doing the work, then I can also see why somebody like Kash would come in and be like, ‘That’s bulls***. We’re gonna announce and give credit where [it’s due] to the people that did the job.’ So that certainly has ruffled some feathers.”
“She had a lot of early missteps to put her in hot water fully, and she feels like, every time the FBI comes out and announces something and does work, that it kind of takes away an opportunity for her to kind of rebound fully,” the source added. “I’m not even faulting her for that part of it. I understand. It’s just this is the first time where the FBI itself has touted the work that they’re doing, versus letting DOJ come out and announce it and take all the credit.”