Federal employees are clearly souring on the performative antics of President Donald Trump's Cabinet secretaries, Dispatch Senior Editor Michael Warren says.
“In the 2008 comedy Role Models, Paul Rudd’s character … tries to understand his awkward teenaged mentee’s interest in medieval-themed live-action role-playing (known in the community as ‘LARPing’),” said Warren. “… I’ve been reminded of those LARPing scenes several times recently with the news about some of the Trump administration’s top law enforcement and security officials who have appeared in the field, performing their duties with agency-appropriate clothing and gear — and always with a camera in tow, ready to post on social media.”
Warren said it “may have all started” with U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, who got on horseback and patrolled the southern border with Border Patrol agents in February. Later that spring, she began joining Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers on their raids across the country, complete with protective gear and sometimes wielding her own firearm. In April, Warren noted that Noem posted a video of herself on X, flanked by two ICE officers, with her rifle barrel threatening the head of one of the officers.
That love of performance appears to be trickling down, said Warren, with The Atlantic reporting that ICE Deputy Director Madison Sheahan featured herself in several framed photos of ICE raids that hang outside the agency’s executive offices. Sources told The Atlantic that Sheahan had been asking for her own firearm and badge, despite having no experience in immigration enforcement prior to joining the agency months earlier.
“The LARPing, unsurprisingly, doesn’t do much to endear these political appointees to their employees,” said Warren. “According to Ben Terris of New York magazine, some officials at ICE called Sheahan ‘Fish Cop’ because of her previous experience running Louisiana’s department of wildlife and fisheries. According to that Atlantic article, one frustrated ICE official dismissed Noem’s flamboyant rap videos and publicity stunts as ‘cowboy s——.’”
A recent report from an anonymous group of former and current FBI officials shows that the bitterness is getting obvious.
“Written to appear like an intelligence assessment, the 115-page report is labeled a ‘pulse check’ on the FBI over the last six months and cites specific sources currently working at the FBI. The overall conclusion is that the agency is a ‘rudderless ship’ and that [FBI head Kash] Patel is ‘in over his head’ in the job.”
The report, addressed to Republican chairs of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, also includes a number of embarrassing anecdotes about Patel, including one source describing refusing to “disembark from the plane without an FBI raid jacket” in the middle of the Charlie Kirk assassination. Deputy director Dan Bongino later had to call the Salt Lake City field office’s special agent in charge to apologize after one of Patel’s “expletive-laden tirade.”
If the anonymous report about the FBI reflects wider views in the agency, Warren warned, “there is a lot of consternation” about the primping posers Trump has put into command of some important offices.
As one source speaking to anonymous report authors: “stop talking, stop posting, and just be professional.”
Read the Dispatch report at this link.