(photo credit: John McDonnell for AP)
President Donald Trump “laughed” at a “totally false” MS NOW report he was considering firing FBI Director Kash Patel, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday.
Leavitt, in a post on X, said the story was “completely made up.” She said she was in the Oval Office with both Trump and Patel when the report was published on Tuesday — spurring Trump to take a quick picture standing alongside the FBI boss. Leavitt posted the photo, with both men smiling and giving Trump’s patented thumbs-up gesture.
“What? That’s totally false. Come on, Kash, let’s take a picture to show them you’re doing a great job!” Trump said, according to Leavitt.
The White House’s response came an hour after MS NOW reported Trump was “considering removing Kash Patel as FBI director in the coming months, as he and his top aides have grown increasingly frustrated by the unflattering headlines Patel has recently generated.” That report was based on “three people with knowledge
One of the authors of the report, justice and intelligence correspondent Ken Dilanian, stood by his report during an appearance on MS NOW following Leavitt’s response.
He said:
“I said in the last hour that we may have enhanced Kash Patel’s job security by reporting this story. And that seems to be playing out. But there’s another factor. I also got some texts from FBI sources after the story was published, saying you’re spot on…. it’s anybody’s guess how this is all going to play out, but it is absolutely our reporting that, of course, Pam Bondi and Todd Blanche, but also the White House and Donald Trump have grown annoyed with the bad press that Patel has been racking up.”
One headline Trump disliked, according to MS NOW’s initial report, was the story Patel was using a government jet to go watch his girlfriend, country singer Alexis Wilkins, perform. Patel deemed that report “fake news” earlier this month.
Dilanian, during an earlier appearance on MS NOW on Tuesday, discussed the report with anchor Katy Tur.
“Well, Katy, I should say, first of all, all the qualifiers apply here. With Donald Trump and personnel decisions, you never actually know exactly what’s going on. But we are being told that Kash Patel, the FBI director, is on increasingly thin ice, and the president is considering replacing him
Dilanian added that Trump was upset by “premature tweets” Patel sent related to the investigation into the murder of Charlie Kirk.