WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump was disappointed by FBI Director Kash Patel’s behavior at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics and expressed displeasure in a conversation with him, a person familiar with the matter said.
Patel went viral for a locker room celebration with the US men’s hockey team after their win over Canada on Sunday – the first time the US team won gold since 1980. In the video, first posted by ProPublica, Patel, an avid hockey fan, can be seen chugging a beer and banging on the table in celebration.
Trump — who doesn’t drink — told Patel he was unhappy not only with the scene, but also with Patel’s use of a government plane to travel to Milan, Italy, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The FBI declined to comment on whether Trump was upset with Patel.
In a statement, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said crime rates were “declining across the board.”
“This is a direct result of the President’s law and order agenda, which is being successfully implemented by his law and order team, including FBI Director Kash Patel,” he said. The President has full confidence in his administration.
Patel’s trip to Italy coincided with the shooting of a gunman who entered the security perimeter of the president’s residence in Mar-a-Lago, Florida. Trump was not there at the time.
Patel was on an official visit to Italy not only for the Olympics but also to meet Italian law enforcement and US agencies providing security at the international event.
“To a very concerned media — yes, I love America and my friends, the newly minted gold medalists on Team USA, were extremely humbled when they invited me into the locker room to celebrate this historic moment with the boys — the greatest country on earth and the greatest sport on earth,” Patel wrote on X after posting the locker-room video.
Patel has previously faced scrutiny for using an FBI jet. Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, has asked the Justice Department’s inspector general to “investigate Director Patel’s misappropriation or misuse of government resources.”
This week, the FBI, at Patel’s direction, fired at least 10 employees connected to the 2022 search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, three people familiar with the matter said. That search turned up classified documents and led to one of two federal cases against Trump; Both were eventually fired. Patel revealed this week that his own cellphone “toll” records were obtained during the Trump investigation.
On Friday, the group Democracy Defenders Fund filed a Freedom of Information Act request for any material of Patel’s “official, personal and political meetings” while he was in Italy.
The request, first obtained by NBC News, asks for items that shed light on Kash Patel’s use of government resources, including government flights, “to facilitate his attendance at the 2026 Olympics and whether he received any gifts, including free attendance at the men’s hockey final.”
