FBI Director Kash Patel is facing criticism after inviting Ultimate Fighting Championship, better known as the UFC, stars to Quantico to train his agents.

New FBI agents already receive some of the most intense training in the world — more than 800 hours at Quantico, according to the bureau’s website.

In a statement, Variety reported, Patel called the training seminar a “tremendous opportunity for our FBI agents to learn and train with some of the greatest athletes on earth — helping the world’s premier law enforcement agency be even better prepared to protect the American people.”

UFC CEO Dana White, Patel added, “has changed the game in the mixed martial arts industry and we’re extremely honored to be partnered with him, the professionals and the UFC. We are grateful for their shared love of our nation, so that we can better defend her.”

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Critics slammed Patel online.

“Hey maybe instead of playing karate with celebrities @Kash_Patel could do his f — — job for once and manage the terrorist threats from Iran?” commented former Obama National Security Council spokesperson Tommy Vietor.

“With a pressing counter intelligence/terrorist need, Kash Patel deems training agents to fight in cages as a priority. We are not a serious country,” remarked former U.S. Ambassador Luis Moreno.

“Expect ridiculous photos and content of Patel training jiu jitsu and shamelessly boondoggling around UFC fighters while trying to look cool and tough,” noted political commentator Paul Rieckhoff, the founder of several veterans’ nonprofits. “While Nancy Guthrie remains missing, a makeshift bomb was thrown near Gracie Mansion, and homeland threats coming out of Iran from drones and other attack methods skyrocket nationwide.”

Rieckhoff called Patel “not a serious leader,” whose “incompetence is making us all less safe.”

“And no way UFC tactics will be used against protesters and dissenters, right?” asked journalist Nancy Levine Stearns.

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A Republican senator who has almost daily has been demanding funding for the Transportation Security Administration on Wednesday blocked Democratic legislation that would fund the TSA — and other Homeland Security agencies such as FEMA and the Coast Guard — but not Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

“Daily reminder that Democrats blocked funding for HOMELAND SECURITY including the Coast Guard, Secret Service, and TSA,” U.S. Senator Katie Britt (R-AL) wrote on Wednesday morning, as she has done almost daily for the past several weeks.

In her posts, Britt notes that “ICE and CBP are still funded and will continue to deport criminal illegal aliens.”

But on the Senate floor on Wednesday afternoon, Senator Britt said that the Democrats’ bill she blocked would “defund” the two agencies she regularly notes are “still funded.”

READ MORE: Trump Slammed for Trip Targeting Republican Who Backed Epstein Files Release

“We have political games being played by our Democratic colleagues instead of putting the people of this nation first,” Britt declared. She called the bill, by U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), legislation that “would effectively defund our law enforcement officers that are charged with keeping Americans safe.”

“It would also defund our border patrol, our customs protection,” she said — the very agencies she states are still funded.

“Look, we’re not going back to the era of ‘defund police,'” Britt insisted.

Senator Murray, lamenting her bill being stalled, wrote: “Senate Republicans just blocked my bill to fund TSA and FEMA… AGAIN. This isn’t complicated: if Republicans won’t agree to rein in ICE & CBP, they should AT MINIMUM work with us to fund TSA. But they won’t.”

According to The Hill, Murray called the idea that her bill would “defund” CBP or Homeland Security investigations “absurd.”

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“All the bill I just offered does is fund the rest of DHS while talks continue on ICE and Border Patrol, and the simple fact is Republicans have already funded these agencies when they gave them more money, than most militaries by the way, in their Big Ugly Bill,” she said.

Attorney and immigration policy expert Andrea R. Flores wrote, “The defund argument just doesn’t make sense after Congress already gave ICE and Border Patrol $170 billion, which means they are at zero risk of stopping any of their core security functions any time soon.”

Pablo Manríquez, editor of Migrant Insider, mocked the Alabama GOP lawmaker: “Britt blocked TSA funding after complaining all month that TSA needs funding,” he wrote.

.@SenKatieBritt objects to Sen. Murray’s push for unanimous consent to fund DHS without ICE or CBP: “We’re not going back to the era of defund police…We’re going to secure our border. We’re going to enforce our laws. And we are going to stand with the people of this country.” pic.twitter.com/GoLMAnvTOO

— CSPAN (@cspan) March 11, 2026

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Image via Reuters 

President Donald Trump is coming under fire for traveling to Kentucky on Wednesday, where he has endorsed a primary challenger against the Republican congressman who co-sponsored legislation to release the Epstein files.

“The Republican Party’s Worst ‘Congressman,’ EVER, Thomas Massie, is attacking GREAT Navy Seal Hero, Ed Gallrein, who is running against him in the Primary,” Trump wrote on Wednesday before heading off to the Bluegrass State.

He called Rep. Massie a “misfit” and a “complete and total disaster as a Congressman, and a Human Being,” who is “disloyal to the Republican Party, the People of Kentucky and, most importantly, he is disloyal to the United States of America!”

The Lincoln Project blasted the president, writing: “Trump’s rushing to Kentucky today. He’s not there to honor the soldier from KY lost in his foolish war, nor address Kentuckians concerns on affordability. He’s there to help primary a Republican who pushed for the Epstein Files’ release.”

READ MORE: How Trump’s ‘Delusional Faith in Himself’ Drove His Decision to Wage War: Columnist

The New York Post characterized Trump’s trip as the president taking “his war” against his “congressional nemesis” straight to Kentucky.

On Tuesday, Massie charged: “They’re paying to bus people to the Trump event in my Congressional District. What they’ll discover is Trump fans in KY-4 and across the entire Commonwealth also support my work on the Epstein files, reigning in spending, ending forever wars, draining the swamp, and food freedom!”

Also on Tuesday, former U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) mocked Trump’s endorsement of Gallrein.

“This is honestly one of the worst things I have ever seen,” she wrote, calling Gallrein, “one of the biggest Trump haters in Kentucky.”

“Boy I bet Ed Gallrein really hates all the sweet people that wore MAGA hats all these years,” Greene added. She also said that Trump’s supporters are “so freaking brainwashed by all the 24-7 BS propaganda on Fox News that they aren’t capable of seeing how much these people hate them.”

READ MORE: How Trump Fumbled What Should Be a ‘Rally Around the Flag’ Time in America: Columnist