FBI Director Kash Patel’s giddy locker-room celebration with the U.S. Olympic men’s hockey team after it won the gold medal was a curious spectacle — and it highlights much of what makes one of Trump’s most audacious side men so objectionable.
Patel — clad in a Team USA jersey seemingly loaned to him by a player — can be seen in viral videos swigging beer from a bottle, spraying beer on other players, thumping a table, jumping up and down, and otherwise preening as though he accomplished something.
Patel’s locker-room appearance warrants extra scrutiny because it is not the first time suspicions have been raised that he could be abusing his government power.
The first question that springs to mind is why was Patel there? Locker-room celebrations are intimate spaces for players to express their joy, and it’s more than a little peculiar for the director of the federal government’s top law enforcement agency to even be in attendance, let alone partake in the celebrations as if he just battled Team Canada himself. (Patel posted to his personal X account on Sunday: “For the very concerned media — yes, I love America and was extremely humbled when my friends, the newly minted Gold Medal winners on Team USA, invited me into the locker room to celebrate this historic moment with the boys.”)
The second question is whether Patel may have exaggerated or manufactured his official government purposes for attending the Olympics in Milan as a pretext for a personal trip as a hockey fan. When MS NOW reported last week that Patel was taking the FBI’s Gulfstream jet to Milan, the FBI pushed back on reporting indicating he was going to Italy on the taxpayers’ dime to watch hockey, with FBI spokesman Ben Williamson adding that “it was unfair to describe the trip as having to do with hockey or pleasure.” That characterization from the FBI is misleading, as clearly the trip involved those qualities in an exceptional way.
While it’s acceptable for government officials to partake in sightseeing during their personal time if their schedule allows, it’s another thing altogether to gain exceptional VIP access to athletes’ private celebrations that would otherwise be inaccessible to them.
Patel’s locker-room appearance warrants extra scrutiny because it is not the first time suspicions have been raised that he could be abusing his government power. In December, Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee said they were investigating whether Patel was using a government jet inappropriately to subsidize his social life, including what they called a “date night” with his girlfriend. (Patel denied wrongdoing and said he reimburses the government for his personal travel.) And MS NOW reported in December that Patel has “on more than one occasion ordered that the security detail protecting his girlfriend escort one of her allegedly inebriated friends home after a night of partying.” (The FBI denied that this happened and called it “made up.”)
Even if one is not scandalized by Patel using his privileged government position to squirm his way into a victorious locker room, there are long-standing concerns about his professionalism — and this doesn’t help assuage them. Patel is supposed to be a serious figure of authority, and his credibility rests on appearing restrained and impartial. Partying in the bro-iest manner imaginable isn’t appropriate for someone with his responsibilities. Especially since he doesn’t have a good track record for doing what he’s supposed to be doing when he’s working. Consider how many current and former FBI agents have sharply criticized Patel’s behavior at his post, including his reported obsession with prioritizing social media strategy over actual law enforcement duties. In the immediate aftermath of the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, Patel broke internal communications protocols and spread misinformation about the pursuit of the suspect. Given Patel’s reputation for being in over his head with his job, it would seem the last thing he’d want is to be caught partying in a manner unbefitting a man of his position. But Patel and so many other top officials in the Trump administration don’t appear to care about being perceived as competent. They care about being perceived as powerful — and getting away with whatever they can.
Zeeshan Aleem is a writer and editor for MS NOW. He primarily writes about politics and foreign policy. 
