The FBI director may have had a plan with his resignation

Donald Trump
Trump's boundless ego shakes the foundations of the rule of law

Wolfgang Hansson

This is a commenting text. Analysis and positions are the writer's.

Published 20.15

Quick version

•  Donald Trump expressed displeasure with FBI Director Christopher Wray after a search of Trump's home and wants to fire him.
  
• Trump has nominated Kash Patel for the FBI director post, raising concerns about the politicization of the office.
• The FBI director's role is at risk of losing its apolitical status through Trump's actions, which could negatively impact America's legal system and democracy.

Christopher Wray resigned as FBI director. Photo: Mark Schiefelbein/AP

In his first television interview since being elected, Trump complains that the FBI director had his Mar-a-Lago home searched. His main argument that Christopher Wray has to go.

The FBI director has traditionally been an apolitical post.

Trump's boundless ego is shaking the foundations of the American rule of law.

When Donald Trump last time in his first months as president fired James Comey as FBI director, it caused huge negative reactions. It had only happened once before in US history that a president fired the FBI director. When Bill Clinton got rid of Jess Sessions in 1993.

The timing may have been a coincidence, but after Trump's interview on NBC's Meet the Press program, Wray announced his intention to resign days before Trump takes office. This is because he is otherwise guaranteed to be fired as soon as Trump is sworn in on January 20 next year.

In other words, Trump is the only president to actually fire the FBI director twice.

The interesting thing is why.

It was Trump himself who gave Wray the job after he fired Comey.

The fact that he is so pissed off at him is based on one thing.

Wray had the audacity to give the green light to a search of ex-President Trump's home in Florida.

At the time, federal authorities had been demanding for more than a year that Trump return top-secret documents he took with him when he left the White House in January 2021.

Photo: Alex Brandon/AP

Refused to return

Trump claimed that as an ex-president he had the right to take whatever documents he wanted with him. The Department of Justice and independent lawyers were of the opposite opinion.

In other words, the FBI was just doing its job. When Trump refused to hand over the documents despite a court order, they searched the house and retrieved them.

Trump was also charged with illegally taking the documents with him.

- He invaded my home, Trump complained in the NBC interview and emphasized how dissatisfied he was with Wray.

Without even touching that he had himself to blame.

- Absolutely without reason, claims Trump.

In addition, Trump expressed in the NBC interview his deep displeasure with Wray airing the theory that Trump, in the mother trial against him earlier this year, could have been hit by shrapnel rather than a bullet.

These perceived personal insults are what drive Trump's actions rather than a broader picture of whether Wray did a good or bad job in office.

Hold your back

America's democracy is based on "checks and balances". No institution should have too much power. The President, Congress and the Supreme Court must check each other.

The head of the FBI has always been regarded as a non-political post where he should not take any partisan political considerations but also cannot be exposed to political pressure. To mark it, the FBI director is appointed in ten years.

Trump's actions risk changing that forever and thus doing irreparable damage to the judiciary and America's democracy.

Trump's attitude is that not only his ministers should be loyal to him, but the entire state apparatus. It doesn't matter if he breaks the law. The FBI will have his back.

It is very reminiscent of how authoritarian leaders around the world view their position of power.

Trump sounds amazed that Wray wanted to uphold the principles of the rule of law even when it comes to an ex-president.

- I don't know what happened to him, says Trump.

Kash Patel, who Trump would prefer to see as the new FBI director. Photo: Mark Schiefelbein/AP

King or political leader?

Instead of the apolitical Wray, Trump has nominated controversial but loyal Kash Patel for the post. The former attorney and prosecutor has said he wants to close the FBI's headquarters in Washington and turn it into a museum of the "deep state."

With the nomination, Trump claims there will be an end to using the FBI and Justice Department as a political weapon against his opponents. When rather this is exactly what Trump is now doing.

Trump believes that everyone who sat on the committee that investigated what happened in the storming of Congress on January 6 and the role of the president should be put in prison. That includes a number of elected politicians such as Republican Liz Cheney.

That Trump is controlled by his ego which is soon to be as big as the universe is one thing.

More astonishing is that so few Republican politicians dare to stand up to Trump's attempts to dismantle democratic protective barriers in order to expand his own power.

The ass-licking and back-pounding going on right now around Trump is as disgusting as it is terrifying.

Is it an autocratic king chosen by the Americans or a political leader?

Many observers believe that Wray is contributing to the politicization of the post by resigning. He should have forced Trump to fire him.

But there may have been a calculation behind Wray's decision.

Because the post is vacant when Trump takes office, it will be more difficult for him to try to circumvent the requirement that a majority of the Senate must approve Patel.

There is a risk that he will ultimately have to nominate someone else.