Despite taking what might’ve otherwise been apolitical postings several years ago, Biden administration officials have increasingly found themselves in the crosshairs of Donald Trump and the right-wing media apparatus. Even as the country nears the two-year mark of Trump’s election loss, the former president has continued to successfully sic his supporters on Washington bureaucrats from afar, ginning up anger toward various agencies over actions he deems politically motivated. As of late, Trump has galvanized his base against the administrative heads he himself appointed to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service.
In 2017, Trump tapped Christopher Wray to lead the FBI, citing his clean reputation and knack for staying out of politics. “He is an impeccably qualified individual,” Trump said of Wray at the time, “and I know that he will again serve his country as a fierce guardian of the law and model of integrity once the Senate confirms him to lead the FBI.” Following the FBI’s recent search of Mar-a-Lago, however, those remarks might appear laughable, as Republican lawmakers and conservative pundits have gone so far as to demand that the FBI be dissolved entirely. Trump, for his part, has condemned the lawfully conducted search as a corrupt “sneak attack” and suggested that FBI agents may have planted evidence to frame him.
After Trump condemned the FBI, the agency was besieged by an “unprecedented” number of threats, as…
