President-elect Donald Trump reacted quickly to protests from supporters who believed that he would choose Mike Rogers as director of the FBI.
Trump’s long-serving advisor and social media director Dan Scavino delivered an update on the idea on Friday morning on his X account.
‘Just spoke to President Trump regarding Mike Rogers going to the FBI,’ he wrote. ‘It’s not happening — In his own words, ‘I have never even given it a thought.’ Not happening.’
Rogers, a former FBI agent, congressman, and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, ran unsuccessfully for Senator of Michigan in November but was a rumored contender for the position after he met with the Trump transition team at Mar-a-Lago.
Key MAGA figureheads started protesting the idea after learning more details about Rogers and his background in the intelligence community.
Old social media posts from Rogers were resurfaced after he was a rumored pick to lead the FBI, as he concluded in 2017 that the Russians had interfered in the 2016 election warning that it was a ‘clear and present danger to our democracy.’
Rogers was also a co-founder of The Alliance for Securing Democracy, a group described by critics as a ‘deep state Never Trump’ organization with former establishment national security advisors who created the Hamilton 68 project.
The controversial project targeted social media accounts as sources of Russian disinformation, even though many of them were journalists or American citizens.
Republican Michigan Senate candidate Mike Rogers speaks during an election night watch
Rogers also worked with former Director of National Intelligence Clapper at Harvard and previously praised his ‘professionalism’ and ‘gravitas’ at the agency.
Backlash against Rogers only increased after former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe endorsed the idea of him leading the law enforcement agency.
McCabe described Rogers as a ‘totally reasonable, logical selection’ to lead the agency, in an interview on CNN and warned against Trump choosing MAGA loyalist Kash Patel.
‘It’s inconceivable to me that an outsider with no experience in the organization, no knowledge of the work and the scope of authority that’s involved there could perform adequately,’ McCabe said.
That only fueled MAGA support for Patel, an unabashed Trump loyalist who gives some Republicans pause, after he served roles at the National Security Council and Defense Department in Trump’s first term.
Patel frequently voices his contempt for the ‘deep state’ within the national security and intelligence establishment, vowing to dramatically reform the agencies if appointed by Trump to a position in either of the departments.
Patel previewed his plan for the FBI in a recent podcast interview with Shawn Ryan.
‘I’d shut down the FBI Hoover building on Day One and reopen it the next day as a museum of the deep state, and I’d take the 7,000 employees that work in that building and send them across America to chase down criminals,’ Patel said. ‘Go be cops. You’re cops. Go be cops.’
As an aide for former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, Patel earned rave reviews from Trump loyalists for fighting the ongoing accusations that the campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential election.
He rose quickly within the ranks of the Trump administration, beginning as a senior counterterrorism directer on the National Security Council, to the principal deputy to the acting director in the Office of National Intelligence, and finally the principal deputy to the acting director of the Department of Defense.
Trump even planned to fire CIA director Gina Haspel’s top deputy and replace him with Patel in the final weeks of his administration, but was convinced otherwise by then vice president Mike Pence.
