Some members of Donald Trump’s transition team are reportedly frustrated that Kash Patel and Cliff Sims, both MAGA insiders, appear to be using their positions to promote themselves for deputy director of the CIA.
Patel and Sims are both going head-to-head for the No. 2 position at the CIA, Politico reports. The CIA’s deputy director wields immense influence over the intelligence community but does not have to be confirmed by the Senate, unlike cabinet members.
However, some transition team members in their orbit are frustrated that the men are advocating for themselves while making staffing decisions, Politico reports.
“The issue that a lot of us have is that these people are involved in staffing national security jobs, and at the same time they’re also promoting themselves for the same roles,” an unnamed insider told Politico.
Karoline Leavitt, a Trump spokesperson and soon-to-be White House press secretary, denied Politico’s reporting.
“This story is 100% false,” Leavitt said in a statement to The Independent. “The fake news is clearly trying to sow division between two of President Trump’s most loyal supporters. President Trump is choosing brilliant people to serve on his team, and those decisions will continue to be announced as he makes them.”
Patel previously served as a National Security Council official, senior adviser at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and chief of staff to Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller.
He is a Trump loyalist who has railed against the so-called “Deep State.” Even among the most staunch MAGA loyalists, he is viewed as a controversial figure.
On Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast last year, Patel said a team of “all-American patriots” in all levels of government in the next Trump administration will “come after” members of the press that he claims have “lied about American citizens” and “helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections.”
“We’re going to come after you, whether it’s criminal or civilly, we’ll figure that out,” said Patel, who joined the Trump administration in 2019 as an intelligence official.
“We’re putting you all on notice,” he added. “And Steve, this is why they hate us. This is why we’re tyrannical. This is why we’re dictators, because we’re actually going to use the Constitution to prosecute them for crimes they said we have always been guilty of but never have.”
Patel has also reportedly been considered for other administration roles.
Sims, meanwhile, is a former communications strategist for Trump’s White House and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. He published Team of Vipers: My 500 Extraordinary Days in the Trump White House in 2019, which recounted his time in Trump’s administration.
The book angered Trump during his first term.
“A low level staffer that I hardly knew named Cliff Sims wrote yet another boring book based on made up stories and fiction,” Trump tweeted in January 2019. “He pretended to be an insider when in fact he was nothing more than a gofer. He signed a non-disclosure agreement. He is a mess!”
Sims then sued Trump, arguing the government was stifling his “First Amendment right to disclose unclassified information regarding which he learned during his tenure as a federal employee,” Politico reported.
He later dropped the lawsuit and returned to the administration to serve as a senior adviser to the director of national intelligence in October 2020, according to Politico.
