Anthony Salisbury, the second in command at the Department of Homeland Security, issued FBI Director Kash Patel a brutal nickname in messages to high-ranking Trump administration officials, according to a series of leaked text messages obtained by the Minnesota Star Tribune and repotted on Friday.
A source provided the outlet with a series of images of Salisbury's alleged text messages that he wrote while attending a private event in Minnesota, which the White House said was his uncle’s funeral. The messages, the source said, were written “in clear view of others,” and among them included remarks about Patel that suggested Salisbury wasn’t fond of the FBI’s leader.
The message included some praise for Patel over his willingness to fire FBI agents photographed kneeling in solidarity with the 2020 George Floyd protests. The praise was short-lived, however, and was quickly followed by a brutal insult.
“This is how Kash survives,” Salisbury wrote, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune. “He will do this stuff for the man but day to day giant douche canoe.”
Patel has already faced scrutiny for making good, in part, on his pledge to purge President Donald Trump’s political enemies from the agency, which has seen dozens of prosecutors and agency veterans ousted since Trump took office in January. He’s also faced scrutiny from the MAGA base, largely over his handling of the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender whose alleged co-conspirators remain unnamed and uncharged.
Patel also faced blowback over his botched handling of the investigation into the killing of right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk, an investigation so compromised – including by Patel’s own choice of words, potentially – that the White House and the Justice Department had “no confidence” left in his leadership, according to an anonymous source who spoke with Fox News.