The White House on Tuesday forcefully rejected a report from MS NOW (formerly MSNBC) alleging that President Donald Trump is considering firing FBI Director Kash Patel, calling the claim “totally false” and insisting Patel remains a central figure in Trump’s law-enforcement agenda.

The MS NOW report, citing three unnamed sources, claimed Trump was privately weighing Patel’s removal following a series of supposed internal missteps at the FBI. It suggested that co–Deputy Director Andrew Bailey was being discussed as a potential replacement. The outlet framed the potential move as a response to controversy within the bureau.

The White House responded with unusually blunt pushback. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the report on social media, saying Trump “laughed” when told about it. In a separate statement, spokeswoman Abigail Jackson defended Patel, calling him a “critical member of the President’s team” working “tirelessly to restore integrity to the FBI.”

Patel, a former Trump national security aide, was confirmed as FBI Director earlier this year after Christopher Wray resigned before Trump’s return to office. His tenure has been marked by sweeping personnel purges and a September federal lawsuit accusing him of targeting career officials for political reasons. Democrats have charged him with politicizing the bureau, while Trump allies credit him with confronting what they call “entrenched bias.”

The MS NOW story immediately set off partisan reactions. Conservative commentators denounced it as “fake news,” while some liberal analysts speculated the leak showed internal fractures inside Trump’s administration. MS NOW has not issued a correction or supplemental sourcing following the White House’s denial.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)