Author: AFP

The Republican-controlled US Senate on Thursday confirmed Kash Patel, a staunch loyalist who has threatened to go after President Donald Trump’s political enemies, as director of the FBI, the country’s top law enforcement agency.

Patel, 44, whose nomination sparked fierce but ultimately futile opposition from Democrats, was approved by a 51-49 vote.

The vote was split along party lines with the exception of two Republican senators, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, who voted not to confirm Patel to head the 38,000-strong Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Patel drew fire from Democrats for his promotion of conspiracy theories, his defense of pro-Trump rioters who attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and his vow to root out members of a supposed “deep state” plotting to oppose the Republican president.

Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, in a Senate speech opposing Patel’s nomination, said he is “dangerously, politically extreme” and has “repeatedly expressed his intention to use our nation’s most important law enforcement agency to retaliate against his political enemies.”

The Senate has approved all of Trump’s cabinet picks so far, underscoring his iron grip on the Republican Party.

Among them is Tulsi Gabbard, confirmed as the nation’s spy chief despite past support for adversarial nations including Russia and Syria, and vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be health secretary.

Patel, in a statement on X, said he was honored to become the FBI director.

“The American people deserve an FBI that is transparent, accountable, and committed to justice,” he said.

“The politicalization of our justice system has eroded public trust — but that ends today,” he added. “My mission as Director is clear: let good cops be cops — and rebuild trust in the FBI.

“And to those who seek to harm Americans — consider this your warning,” he said. “We will hunt you down in every corner of this planet.”

‘Enemies list’

Patel replaces Christopher Wray, who was named FBI chief by Trump during his first term.

Relations between Wray and Trump became strained, however, and though he had three years left in his 10-year tenure, Wray resigned after Trump won November’s presidential election.

A son of Indian immigrants and former federal prosecutor, the New York-born Patel served in several high-level posts during Trump’s first administration, including as senior director for counterterrorism on the National Security Council.

There were fiery exchanges at Patel’s confirmation hearing last month as Democrats brought up a list of 60 supposed “deep state” actors — all critics of Trump — he included in a 2022 book, whom he said should be investigated or “otherwise reviled.”

Patel has denied having an “enemies list” and told the Senate Judiciary Committee he was merely interested in bringing lawbreakers to book.

“All FBI employees will be protected against political retribution,” he said.

The FBI has been in turmoil since Trump took office and a number of agents have been fired or demoted including some involved in the prosecutions of Trump for seeking to overturn the 2020 election results and mishandling classified documents.

Nine FBI employees have sued the Justice Department seeking to block efforts to collect information on agents who were involved in investigating Trump and the Capitol riot.

In their complaint, the FBI agents said the efforts were part of a “purge” orchestrated by Trump as “politically motivated retribution.”

Trump, on his first day in the White House, pardoned more than 1,500 of his supporters who stormed Congress in a bid to block certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory.

The US national security advisor warned Ukraine’s leader to stop hurling “insults” at Donald Trump, as pressure built Friday on Volodymyr Zelensky to sign away precious mineral rights in exchange for Washington’s help defending against Russia.

Tensions between Trump and Zelensky over the proposed mineral deal — which Kyiv has rejected — and Washington’s outreach to Moscow have exploded this week in a series of barbs traded at press conferences and on social media.

Zelensky has warned that Trump has succumbed to Russian “disinformation”, while the US leader has accused his counterpart of starting the war and branded him a “dictator without elections”.

“Some of the rhetoric coming out of Kyiv, frankly, and insults to President Trump were unacceptable,” US national security advisor Mike Waltz told a Thursday briefing at the White House.

“President Trump is obviously very frustrated right now with President Zelensky, the fact that he hasn’t come to the table, that he hasn’t been willing to take this opportunity that we have offered,” he said.

The United States is a vital financial and military supporter of Ukraine, but Trump has rattled Kyiv and its European backers by opening talks with Moscow they fear could end the war on terms that reward Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The spat has turned personal with Trump falsely claiming Zelensky is hugely unpopular among his own people and the Ukrainian leader saying Trump lives in a Russian “disinformation space”.

Tech tycoon and Trump backer Elon Musk weighed in Thursday, saying Ukrainians “despised” their president and that the US leader was right to leave him out of talks with Russia.

Amid the war of words, Zelensky said Thursday he had held a “productive meeting” with US envoy Keith Kellogg in Kyiv.

“We had a detailed conversation about the battlefield situation, how to return our prisoners of war, and effective security guarantees,” Zelensky said on social media after the meeting.

“Strong Ukraine-U.S. relations benefit the entire world,” he added.

However, there was no joint press conference or statements after the discussions, as would typically accompany such a visit.

‘Unacceptable’

Trump is calling for Kyiv to hand over access to its mineral wealth as compensation for tens of billions of dollars in US aid delivered under his predecessor Joe Biden.

Zelensky rejected a deal proposed by Trump as it did not include “security guarantees” — Kyiv’s key demand from its Western backers in any agreement with Russia to halt the fighting.

The feud marks a dramatic reversal from US policy under Biden, who lauded Zelensky as a hero, shipped vast supplies of arms to Kyiv and hammered Moscow with sanctions.

Trump has instead criticised Zelensky and blamed him for starting the war that began with Russia’s full-scale invasion three years ago.

“A Dictator without Elections, Zelensky better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday.

Zelensky was elected in 2019 for a five-year term and has remained leader in line with Ukrainian rules under martial law, imposed as his country fights for its survival.

While Zelensky’s popularity has fallen, the percentage of Ukrainians who trust him has never dipped below 50 percent since the conflict started, according to the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS).

Shock at Trump attack

Trump’s invective drew shock reactions from Europe.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said it was “wrong and dangerous” to call Zelensky a dictator.

The White House said France’s Emmanuel Macron and Britain’s Keir Starmer will visit Trump next week after European leaders held emergency summits in recent days over how to deal with Trump’s threats to overhaul decades of transatlantic security ties.

The Kremlin, buoyed by its rapprochement with Washington, has hailed Trump’s comments.

Russia, which for years has railed against the US military presence in Europe, wants a reorganisation of the continent’s security framework as part of any deal to end the Ukraine fighting.

Putin said Wednesday that US allies “only have themselves to blame for what’s happening,” suggesting they were paying the price for opposing Trump’s return to the White House.

Neither Kyiv nor European countries were invited to high-level talks between top diplomats from Russia and the US in Saudi Arabia earlier this week, deepening fears they are being sidelined.