Kash Patel’s never-ending quest to make himself look cool took another embarrassing turn.
Patel, 46, shared a bizarre video on X on Saturday in which he boasts of his accomplishments over the last year as President Donald Trump’s FBI director.
The video consists of a montage of FBI B-roll footage, audio clips of Patel speaking during press briefings, and news reels set to “You Could Be Mine” by Guns N’ Roses—a band whose leader, Axl Rose, is not shy about his disdain for Donald Trump.
“The FBI delivered the safest America under President Trump’s leadership in the history of our country,” Patel says in the opening seconds of the self-congratulatory hype video.
In the two-minute-and-28-second video, Patel is seen firing a weapon at a shooting range, addressing the press in an outdoor speech, and walking around wearing sunglasses and camouflage.
“These are the best numbers for fighting crime in U.S. history,” Patel says before the clip ends with a zoom-out of the FBI logo. “It’s letting good cops be cops—letting agents go out there and do the job they were trained to do.”
The FBI director followed up his Saturday post with another boast on Sunday, highlighting how the agency has “cut the bureaucracy” under his leadership and “saved more than $300 million by shuttering wasteful contracts.”
“After just 14 months, we’ve delivered a generational overhaul at the FBI,” Patel wrote on Sunday. “We’re using AI for the first time across the bureaus entire enterprise to stay ahead of threats and restoring the Bureau’s focus on protecting the American people.”
The FBI director’s post comes just hours after Saturday Night Live roasted him in the show’s latest cold open, with a cameo appearance from comedian Aziz Ansari playing Patel.
“You guys should not be reporting the lies and the gossip,” Ansari’s Patel told reporters. “You should be reporting on the historic nature of my appointment. I’m a trailblazer. I’m the first Indian person to suck at their job.”
Patel’s efforts to boost his image follow a chaotic White House Correspondents’ Dinner on April 25, where a gunman attempted to breach the event and allegedly target administration officials. The suspect, 31-year-old Cole Allen, allegedly wrote in a manifesto that Patel was not included among those on his hit list.
The embattled Trump appointee has tried desperately to stay in the president’s good graces, as three of the administration’s original Cabinet officials—Pam Bondi, Kristi Noem, and Lori Chavez-DeRemer—have already gotten the ax.
A top White House official told Politico last month that “it’s only a matter of time” before Patel gets the boot, too, as negative stories about his performance have reportedly become a distraction to the president.
The former podcaster has tried to amp up attention around his “prolific” crime-fighting after The Atlantic published a bombshell report last month about his alleged excessive drinking.
The optics-obsessed Patel melted down over the accusations, filing a $250 million lawsuit against the magazine three days after the piece was published.
“Memo to the fake news - the only time I’ll ever actually be concerned about the hit piece lies you write about me will be when you stop,” Patel wrote on X the day after the story published. “Keep talking, it means I’m doing exactly what I should be doing. And no amount of BS you write will ever deter this FBI from making America safe again and taking down the criminals you love.”
