He calls himself K$H.
That is the brand name Kash Patel, President Trump’s nominee to run the F.B.I., has used to hawk T-shirts, hats, flags and pricey potables ($344.99 will buy a cabernet with Mr. Trump’s glowering mug shot on the label).
Mr. Patel has not only cast his political lot with Mr. Trump, he has also used the connection to Mr. Trump, the Trump brand, Truth Social and other Trump-linked entities as a significant source of income over the past several years.
After Mr. Trump left the White House, Mr. Patel began working for him as a paid adviser on national security issues, and subsequently joined the board of Truth Social’s parent company, Trump Media & Technology Group — where he was paid about $130,000 to investigate two of the company’s founders.
In all, the consulting company he founded has collected about $465,000 from Mr. Trump’s social media company and political action committee, according to records.
It is not known how much money Mr. Patel made from his polemical memoir, “Government Gangsters” (which includes his 60-person enemies list and threat to depopulate F.B.I. headquarters and turn it into a museum), or what he earned when it was turned into a documentary, according to his answers to a questionnaire he submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
His Trump-adjacent business ventures, which are intertwined with his charitable efforts, appear to be a major source of income for a career public-sector employee who now finds himself with enough income to afford a membership to the invitation-only Poodle Room in Las Vegas, which carries an estimated $20,000 membership fee.
Mr. Patel is also a founder of Based Apparel, a company that advertises on Truth Social and markets the branded K$H ephemera and books.
He has also promoted wooden plaques, “Warrior Essentials” and anti-vaccine diet supplements.
Mr. Patel operates the Kash Foundation, a nonprofit that he has said offers financial help to a range of recipients, including the families of people charged for their roles in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Some of the proceeds of his wine and clothing sales go to his foundation. (All of “net profits” from the $25 “Fight with K$H PUNISHER Socks” go to the charity, according to his website.)
The ultimate merger of his political, literary and commercial interests is a line of illustrated children’s books, in which he portrays himself as a wizard of the Gandalf type, wearing a midnight blue robe covered with glittering stars and half moons.
Mr. Trump, broad-shouldered and crowned, is known as “the King.”
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