Kash Patel Has a Long History of MAGA Money Grabs and Cringe Memes

Kash Patel, who served briefly as chief of staff to the Secretary of Defense at the end Donald Trump‘s first presidential term and is now Trump’s pick to lead the Federal Bureau of Investigation, has made no secret of his unwavering support for the MAGA movement. As leader of the powerful law enforcement agency, the die-hard loyalist would be poised to make good on his repeated threats to go after Trump’s enemies in the media and the so-called “deep state,” while some elected Republicans hope he will dismantle the FBI as we know it.

But Patel doesn’t just share Trump’s ideological bent and appetite for authoritarian power. He is also, like the once and future president, an inveterate salesman, always hawking products meant to line his pockets while advancing his political agenda.

Over the past two years, for example, Patel has published a trilogy of children’s books under the title The Plot Against the King. The first installment is a fairytale rendition of Patel’s conspiracist claims that Hillary Clinton (here depicted as “Hillary Queenton”) and her minions orchestrated the FBI investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election to undermine the legitimacy of Trump’s victory in that race. Patel casts himself as “Kash, the Distinguished Discoverer,” a wizard-like character who sniffs out the scheme. The second book makes reference to 2,000 Mules, a discredited documentary by MAGA filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza which made false claims about the 2020 election being stolen. (D’Souza was forced to admit on Sunday that the film was based on “inaccurate” information.) The final chapter is about “King Donald” defeating figures meant to represent President Biden and Vice President Harris. These are in addition to his 2023 book for right-wing adults, Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy.

Other merch Kash has peddled since Trump left office in 2021 runs the gamut from your basic apparel (“Fight With K$H” shirts, hoodies and socks) to flags, thermoses, and $250 steel wall art of an orange Punisher skull with Trump-style hair. Patel wore one item from his store, the Fight With Kash Punisher Intarsia Reversible Scarf, when speaking at the 2024 Conservative Political Action Conference. According to his website, “net profits” from the online shop go toward the Kash Foundation, which purports to assist whistleblowers with legal defense funds and defend First Amendment rights. The organization, which became a tax-exempt nonprofit in 2022 and reported revenue of $1.29 million for 2023, made payments to FBI whistleblowers who testified before a House Judiciary committee last year as part of Rep. Jim Jordan‘s failed bid to uncover a “deep state” conspiracy against Trump within the federal bureaucracy.  

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Contrary to the suggestion of an edited image that made the rounds on Truth Social in 2022, Patel has never partnered with the footwear company Lucchese to sell boots with the tagline “Shoving boots up the Deep States’ [sic] ass since 1883.” Patel’s face was apparently superimposed onto that of a model wearing leather boots. Yet Patel did lend his name to a winemaker that sells through the small batch alcohol distributor Great American Craft Spirits: A six-pack of the K$H Cabernet Sauvignon costs $243.99, with some portion of that price allegedly going toward an unnamed charity.

Patel has also partnered with and endorsed alternative economy businesses serving a “patriot” customer base, including the financial services company Revere Payments, Coign (billed as “a credit card for conservatives”), and the cell phone carrier Patriot Mobile. His promotional efforts have even extended to music; he was among the producers of “Justice for All,” a single that featured Trump reciting the Pledge of Allegiance with a choir of unidentified Jan. 6 defendants singing the national anthem in jail. Trump played the track at his first 2024 presidential rally. A video for the single has since vanished from YouTube, though it’s unclear if it was the platform or the user who removed the song.

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Most alarmingly, Patel has used his Truth Social account to tout the efficacy of “vaccine reversal” treatments sold by a company whose co-founders previously ran a multi-level marketing business, Xcellent Choice, which was flagged by the watchdog Truth in Advertising. Warrior Essentials, the company behind the trademarked vaccine “detox” pills, claims that one of its products eliminates the spike protein from a Covid-19 vaccine, as well as “zombie cells” and “misfolded DNA.” The actual ingredients — which include zinc, vitamin D, and pineapple and soy extracts — are common to many supplements and have not been shown to have the effects advertised by Warrior Essentials.

Throughout his relentless profiteering off Trump, Patel has tended to valorize himself as the incoming president and many of his extremely online allies do: with low-quality memes. Patel himself shared the altered photo in which he was supposedly modeling Lucchese boots, and once, in another Truth Social post, shared a poorly cropped image of himself as Star-Lord from Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, but with the title “Meme-Lord.” The caption on the picture, which features the seal of the U.S. Space Force, reads: “Lets goooooo #TruthSocial – #FWK making some noise – wizards n warlocks style.”

Whether this prolonged period of hucksterism, stymied attempts to uproot a deep state conspiracy, and militant bluster has prepared Kash to serve effectively as an FBI director is, of course, an open question. To that end, his confirmation by a likely skeptical Senate is not guaranteed. But it’s clear, anyway, what makes him qualified for the job in Trump’s eyes: He backs the president-elect every step of the way, and, just like Trump, sees nothing wrong with using political influence to make an easy buck.