Former president Donald Trump said he thinks most of the people at the FBI are good people and that the bureau can be reformed, but admitted appointing FBI director Christopher Wray was “sadly” a mistake.
Appearing on Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo, Trump blamed one of his challengers in the 2024 race for the Wray appointment. “[Wray] was recommended very strongly by Chris Christie, who’s a sad case,” Trump said.
The former president said some of the main mistakes of his first term were certain appointments. In retrospect, Trump told Bartiromo, he wouldn’t have appointed Bill Barr and Jeff Sessions to the attorney general spot.
“You put somebody in, you think they’ll be good,” said Trump, explaining he was a newcomer to Washington D.C. and despite that, most of his appointments turned out well.
But his second term will be different, the former president argued. “I know the people now better than anybody’s ever known the people. I know the good ones. I know the bad ones,” Trump said.
Trump also addressed what he called the tremendous politicization of the FBI and the Department of Justice. He said he hates to point this out because many of the agents at the FBI are “incredible.”
“I hate to say the FBI because you have people at the FBI who are very angry,” Trump said.
The regular agents, in Trump’s opinion, “were going to literally strike” because of how former FBI director James Comey handled investigations into Trump’s 2016 opponent, Hillary Clinton.
According to the former president, the FBI was also against him in 2016 and early into his first term and he would have never lasted if he didn’t fire Comey. Trump said that many people have told him firing Comey was one of his greatest instinctual moves.
There’s a leadership problem at the bureau as well as a few bad apples, said the former president, mentioning Andrew McCabe, Lisa Page, and Peter Strzok by name.
“Most of the people aren’t corrupt, they’re brave,” Trump said.
The former president also addressed some specific reforms. He said the FISA process was abused by the FBI and he was surprised that the judges at the FISA court did not complain publicly about violations of the process.
“FISA was corrupt,” said Trump.
The former president also differed with some of his opponents on construction of a new FBI building. Trump opposes moving the FBI out of Washington D.C. to a different state. Instead, the FBI ought to be taken down and a brand new building should be built in Washington as close as possible to the DOJ, Trump argued.
“I like the idea of it being close to the Justice Department,” said Trump, claiming that people at the FBI liked the idea as well when it was mooted during his first term.
“They’ve got the land,” said the former president, adding that it would cost a lot less money.