MAGA Republican President Donald Trump's pick for director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Kash Patel, has been the subject of online ridicule for some time.
After all, Patel authored a children's book titled The Plot Against the King in 2022 with a main character named King Donald who had an arch-nemesis named Hillary Queenton.
He's long been labeled Trump's—or Putin's—puppet...
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...but after a May 28 "Special Report" on Fox News with host Bret Baier, people are calling Patel a doll—among other things.
When Patel sat down—or rather climbed up—to speak to Baier, a combination of chair size, camera angles, and forced perspective left Patel looking considerably smaller than Baier and dwarfed by his seat.
whoever did the advance work for this Kash Patel interview is about to find themselves with a one-way ticket to Guantanamo
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— Bradford Pearson ( @bradfordpearson.bsky.social) May 28, 2025 at 8:14 PM
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Once the internet caught sight of the interview video and stills, the jokes and memes were inevitable.
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Someone get Kash Patel a Capri-Sun
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— Stone Cold Jane Austen ( @abbyhiggs.bsky.social) May 29, 2025 at 8:40 PM
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Of course, there were other reasons to mock Patel's interview.
The absurdity of the camera angle and the size of the chair led many online to speculate that the image Fox presented of Patel was deliberate.
Some blamed Baier, claiming he has a history of insecurity about his own height.
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Patel is reportedly 5'9", Baier has been listed as 5'10" to 6" tall, depending on the source. Their height difference is only a matter of inches, not the foot or more that it looked like during the Wednesday interview.
If Fox or Baier did set Trump's FBI director up for ridicule, given the internet's almost constant mockery of Patel, it seems like pretty low-hanging fruit.