Kash Patel, aide to the president-elect Donald Trumpis expected to succeed FBI Director Christopher Wray after January 20, former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon has said.

According to Bannonthe current head of the FBI, hired for a 10-year term, could resign or be asked to leave. It was Trump who hired Wray for the job in 2017. However, a lot has changed over the past seven years, including his harsh criticism of his own appointee. This indicates that it is more likely that Wray’s time is running out and he will either be replaced or resign on his own to escape dismissal.

Bannon’s remarks follow an NBC News report that Wray, who enjoys running the FBI and plans to finish his term, is preparing for that eventuality. Earlier in April, he told the network that he “loves doing this work.”

“As long as I think I can do it within all these rules and standards, I would like to continue doing it,” he said.

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Donald Trump snubs Kash Patel for appointing ex-US spy John Ratcliffe as CIA director

Patel, a former member of the National Security Council, lost his bid for director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to the ultra-conservative Texas senator John Ratcliffe.

Patel, the son of Indian immigrants and author of a book on the so-called “deep state,” held senior positions in the Department of Defense and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in the final months of the previous Trump administration.

He pleaded for a “complete cleaning” of the FBI and the Department of Justice in his memoir Government Gangsters.

According to the Associated Press, it would be unusual to replace Wray before the end of his 10-year tenure, which was supposed to protect the FBI from the impact of presidential politics. In doing so, Trump will have the opportunity to remake the management of the FBI in his favor at a time when he faces threats from his own political rivals.