KASH MACHINE

How Trump’s FBI Nominee Cashed In on MAGA World With Outrageous Merch and Side Hustles

Patel penned what he called “the first ever children’s Russiagate book,” which bizarrely pushed Trump falsehoods on kids.

Kash Patel, the conspiracy theorist President-elect Donald Trump picked to lead the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), has been trading on his MAGA ties for personal gain for years.

Patel, a lawyer who served in roles at the National Security Council, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Defense during Trump’s previous term, used his exit from government to pivot to full-time MAGA sycophant and pitchman, often under the moniker “K$H.”

Earlier, this year, he promoted a “spike protein recovery system” supplement that supposedly could “reverse” Covid-19 vaccines, aimed at MAGA diehards.

“Mrna detox, reverse the vaxx n get healthy,” he told his followers on Truth Social, of the supplements offered by Warrior Essentials, a health supplement company, in April.

Not surprisingly, they contain a bunch of common dietary supplement ingredients including turmeric extract, green tea extract, dandelion extract, vitamin D, and magnesium—marketed under the trademark “Nocovidium.”

Among the many Trump-themed items he’s pitched on social media is a “beautiful” laser-engraved piece of wood with the logo of Truth Social, which is majority-owned by Trump.

Arguably the most cringe of all Patel’s ventures is a trilogy of children’s books where a cartoon Trump, or “King Donald,” battles villains “Hillary Queenton,” “Sleepy Joe” and “Comma-la-la-la” in a medieval fairy tale setting.

Patel cast himself in the books as a wizard on Trump’s side—known as “the Distinguished Discoverer”—who exposes plots against him.

The first book in the series—which Patel described as “the first ever children’s Russiagate book”—ludicrously uses children’s literature to assert Trump’s false claim that the FBI started investigating his 2016 campaign’s alleged ties to Russia based on the Steele Dossier.

In fact, the FBI opened an investigation after George Papadopoulos, a Trump campaign advisor, told an Australian diplomat that Russia had dirt on Hillary Clinton.

The third and final book features “King Donald” returning to retake his throne from “Comma-la-la-la“ in what the publisher describes as “a great way to start a conversation with your kids about the election.”

Patel does seem to have a taste for weavers of fiction—he once praised the central figure behind the deranged QAnon conspiracy theory: “He should get credit for all the things he has accomplished, because it’s hard to establish a movement, let’s call it that, because it’s what it is.”

Zeteo editor-in-chief Medhi Hasan did a deep dive into Patel in 2022, when he was a host at MSNBC, and reminisced Saturday that he came away with the impression of a “deeply strange and alarming and sycophantic figure.”

While it’s unclear how much his MAGA pitchman and children’s book ventures bring in, Patel also has a consulting firm, which made $120,000 last year from Trump’s Truth Social site and $324,500 over the last two years from pro-Trump Save America PAC.

His consulting firm also took in $145,000 in 2021 from Friends of Matt Gaetz, the campaign committee for Trump’s disgraced former Attorney General nominee, who resigned amid a house probe into him allegedly using illegal drugs and having sex with a 17 year old girl. (Gaetz denies the allegations).

Patel also heads up the Kash Foundation, a nonprofit that he said helps people charged for taking part in the January 6 insurrection. It also sells K$H-branded t-shirts and thermoses, as well as apparel with Trump’s hair photoshopped on a Punisher skull.

The Foundation reported $1.3 million in revenue last year and $674,000 in expenses, blowing nearly half of that—$332,000—on advertising and promotion.

Patel’s support for the Capitol Hill insurrectionists doesn’t end with his foundation. He is listed as a producer on the bizarre single “And Justice For All,” which is a version of the Star Spangled Banner performed by a group of January 6 defendants set against a reading of the Pledge of Allegiance by Trump.

Patel likened the song to “We Are the World,” the 1985 single penned by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie and performed by an ensemble featuring many of the greatest singers and songwriters of the 20th century. to benefit the 1983 to 1985 famine in Ethiopia.

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Sean Craig

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