FBI Director Kash Patel wants to bring in UFC trainers to beef up federal agents’ self-defense and martial arts skills after personally trying the training regime, according to multiple sources.
The newly appointed director, who President Trump has vowed will shake up the “woke” bureau, floated the idea during his first meeting with the FBI’s 55 field office supervisors on Wednesday, multiple people who were on the call told Reuters.
Patel, 45, revealed he was exploring the potential partnership after conservative commentator and ex-Secret Service agent Dan Bongino — who Trump has tapped to be the FBI’s deputy director — inspired him to try the training, the sources added.
Trump is a known UFC fan and counts the sporting body’s president, Dana White, as a close friend.
The FBI declined to comment on Patel’s apparent plan, while a UFC official said they were “not aware of any information regarding UFC and FBI training.”
Since being sworn in last week, Patel has already rattled the bureau with decisions, including transferring some 1,500 FBI employees out of Washington and into field offices across the country.
He vowed to continue scaling back staffing at headquarters and re-distributing people into the field during Wednesday’s call, according to sources.
During his confirmation hearing, Patel pledged to reform, rather than unravel, the bureau — after some Trump allies called for the FBI to be disbanded in the wake of the 2022 raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
Patel said he would “make sure we don’t have 100,000 rapes in this country next year, make sure we don’t have 100,000 drug overdoses from Chinese fentanyl and Mexican heroin, and make sure we don’t have 17,000 homicides.”
“Those numbers need to be cut in half immediately,” he added, “and the public will regain trust in the FBI and law enforcement.”
Still, some agents scoffed at Patel’s latest UFC plan, describing the idea as “surreal” and “wacky.”
“There is training the FBI receives in physical altercations. If Kash Patel believed that should be beefed up, the answer is not to go to Donald Trump’s best friend who runs the UFC,” a former Justice Department official said.
“It’s clearly motivated by the glitz and glamour show, and Trump’s friend.”
With Post wires
