A report about FBI Director Kash Patel being summoned to the White House for a scolding has triggered a series of furious attacks from top Trump officials.
MS NOW has become the target of the White House’s ire after reporting that Patel was set to leave for Chicago on Friday morning when senior Trump administration officials—“frustrated” over reports of his use of taxpayer-funded resources for personal travel—directed him to scrap the trip and report to the West Wing instead.
Sources told the outlet that officials were perplexed by the FBI director’s plans to leave at a time when the United States has resumed exchanging strikes with Iran and amid continuing concerns over alleged threats to the president’s life.
Patel and the FBI quickly denied the claims, posting a statement on X insisting that he had been called to the White House for “official business.” The White House comms team was also quick to attack the report, with the official Rapid Response 47 account labeling it “fake news.”
Confusingly, however, the White House stressed that officials were not “frustrated” by a post Patel had made on X earlier, ignoring other, more serious claims made in the MS Now report.
“Nobody was frustrated. In fact, we’ll start boosting and promoting his earlier tweet even more,” Rapid Response 47 posted.
“There has been no frustration over his tweet this morning. I reposted his tweet. Other White House officials reposted his tweet. Him calling MSNOW dumb—es is an accurate description of their sh–ty reporting,” White House Communications Director Steven Cheung wrote.
The White House intervention came after Patel launched an extraordinary early Friday morning defense of his lifestyle, attacking a report that highlighted his spending and questioning how long President Donald Trump, 80, would continue to stand by him as scrutiny intensified.
Patel, 46, responded on X to a graphic accompanying the article that showed him wearing sunglasses alongside images of a private jet, a BMW, golf clubs, and a white-and-blue jet ski, writing: “Nah, my jet ski is gold plated… dumb–s.”
The summons also followed the revelation of a letter from Trump ally and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, 92, who pressed Patel to provide records on whether he had reimbursed the FBI for frequent private jet trips and to explain why he had “decided to purchase BMW vehicles instead of Chevy Suburbans.”
“Patel was coming [to Chicago] today for a fake office visit for his girlfriend’s country concert this weekend,” one source told MS NOW of the trip that got canceled after the White House stepped in.
Several FBI agents reportedly complained that Patel had arranged the office trip while he was in Chicago to justify flying the Bureau’s $60 million aircraft to the city, where his 27-year-old girlfriend, Alexis Wilkins, was set to perform on Saturday at a country music festival held in the parking lot of a major stadium.
The source told MS NOW that Patel “canceled the trip while on the tarmac at Andrews” and was “summoned to the White House immediately” in “apparent panic.”
The FBI director came under fire last year after reports revealed he had used the Bureau jet to attend a wrestling event in Pennsylvania where Wilkins was performing, as well as for personal trips to her hometown of Nashville.
At the time, Patel called the claims “baseless” and defended his girlfriend, whom he described as a “country music sensation.”
In January, a senior FBI executive told The New York Times that Patel demanded “special requirements on everything” while attending the annual Five Eyes conference, a high-level gathering of security and intelligence officials.
The executive alleged that Patel often chose unusual settings for official business, including social events, soccer matches, jet ski outings, and even helicopter tours.
In a letter to Patel, congressional Democrats demanded more information about his reported “VIP snorkeling,” “taxpayer-funded helicopter trips,” and other “recreational activities like jet skiing.”
Trump has reportedly voiced his disappointment with Patel both to his face and behind closed doors after a string of controversies, including the Olympic Winter Games incident, where a video of the FBI director chugging beer in the U.S. men’s hockey team’s locker room after their gold medal win in Milan went viral and sparked widespread mockery.
Regarding Patel’s White House visit, a White House official pushed back on claims from MS NOW that the meeting was prompted by frustration over the FBI director’s conduct, praising Patel’s tenure and writing: “The idea that he was ‘summoned to the White House’ due to ‘frustration’ is totally inaccurate. He was here for unrelated meetings.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for further comment.
