Trump White House Designee: Rogers not under Consideration for FBI Director

by Sharon Rondeau

(Nov. 22, 2024) — According to President-Elect Donald J. Trump’s White House Deputy Chief of Staff appointee on Friday morning, Trump is not considering former Congressman and former US Senate candidate Mike Rogers for the position of FBI director, contradicting speculation and actual reporting emerging in recent days.

Dan Scavino, who directed Trump’s social media presence during the 2016 campaign and the president’s first term, made the declaration on TruthSocial at just before 9:30 AM EST.

“Just spoke to President Trump regarding Mike Rogers going to the FBI. It’s not happening — In his own words, ‘I have never even given it a thought.’ Not happening,” Scavino wrote.

“FBI Director” was trending in the top spot on “X” for some time Friday morning, but at the time of this writing fell to fourth place and quickly disappeared. Moments later, the topic reappeared in third place and promptly moved up to second.

At 10:42 a.m. EST, it began vying for the top position, which it shared with “Pete Hegseth,” Trump’s nominee to Defense Department Secretary.

Many supportive of Trump’s second-term agenda have expressed a strong preference for former Defense Department liaison, Justice Department trial attorney and former House Intelligence Committee investigator Kash Patel to be nominated for the position.

The current FBI director, Christopher Wray, was also nominated by Trump and confirmed in 2017 after Trump fired then-Director James Comey, whose agency was later proven to have launched a probe into what the Hillary Clinton campaign claimed was “collusion” between the 2016 Trump campaign and the Russian government.

The lack of a predicate for the investigation and firing of several prominent FBI officials, including then-Assistant Director Andrew McCabe, was highlighted in a report completed last year by Special Counsel John Durham.

Although Wray has said he will not resign from his ten-year appointment, which would conclude in 2027, some sources are reporting he expects Trump will want him to resign.

On Thursday Wray and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas did not appear for a scheduled public hearing on the topic of “global threats to national security” in front of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, offering no immediate explanation.

The hearing was then postponed for a second time.

Spokesmen from both agencies issued statements claiming Wray and Mayorkas, respectively, would have testified in a “classified” environment.

On Friday, the UK paper The Independent reported:

Donald Trump is considering former special agent Mike Rogers to head up the FBI, with controversial MAGA loyalist Kash Patel as his deputy, according to a report.

Trump has made it clear he intends to shake up the bureau and fire the current FBI director, Christopher Wray, who was nominated for the position by the president-elect in 2017.

Rogers is a former Marine and FBI agent who served eight years in the Michigan state Senate before representing Michigan in Congress from 2001 to 2015. He narrowly missed out on a Senate seat to Democrat Elissa Slotkin in this year’s election.

Trump supporter, podcaster and former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino has promoted Patel for FBI director.

At the opening of his Friday show at 11:00 a.m. EST, Bongino said, “I can tell you what happened” with the possibility of Rogers leading the agency.

Bongino may himself be under consideration for Secret Service director.