Good morning! Today’s dispatch is a little leaner than usual because I’ve been buried in a larger weekend piece, more on that soon. For now, think of this as the amuse-bouche before the main course: a brisk, sharp slice of the chaos we’re all marinating in.
We start in Utah, where the FBI has once again demonstrated its flair for slapstick policing. The shooting of Charlie Kirk, MAGA’s loudest youth pastor of hate, was always going to be spun into a morality play. What no one expected was that the Bureau would audition for the role of Keystone Cops. First, they misidentified the suspect not once, but twice. Then, thanks to Kash Patel and Dan Bongino, two podcasters cosplaying as law enforcement brass, they put out false statements about having “their guy” in custody, only to quietly release the poor soul hours later. For the grand finale, the ATF managed to confuse a common ammunition headstamp with a secret transgender-antifascist manifesto allegedly etched into bullets. The Wall Street Journal dutifully printed it, MAGA media had a field day, and then, oops, it turned out to be a manufacturer’s mark.
Why the farce? Because the adults have been fired. Patel personally axed Mehtab Syed, a Pakistani-American and the highly respected head of the Utah field office, a veteran counterterrorism agent who also happened to be both Muslim and female. Syed had led sensitive investigations since 9/11 and was known inside the Bureau as steady, professional, and competent, three qualities that apparently disqualified her under Trump’s “retribution” agenda. Along with other career officials forced out, she has now joined a lawsuit alleging unlawful firings and political retaliation. In their place, Trump installed MAGA influencers who treat law enforcement like a podcast set. The result: a Bureau that can’t ....
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