The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) has a new leader, but it won’t be his only job.

On Monday, the ATF updated its leadership page to reflect that Kash Patel is now the agency’s acting director. Patel, who the Senate confirmed by a 51-49 vote to run the FBI on Thursday, will now oversee his second major federal law enforcement agency.

“ATF welcomes Acting Director Kash Patel to ATF, who was sworn in and had his first visit to ATF Headquarters in Washington, D.C. today,” the agency posted. “We are enthusiastic to work together for a safer America!”

The move concentrates a lot of power behind a fierce Trump supporter with a long history of bombastic statements, including false claims Trump won the 2020 election and repeated attacks on federal officials he views as antagonistic toward Trump. While Patel worked as a Department of Justice lawyer and national intelligence official in the first Trump Administration, he has never worked at the ATF. The appointment continues the recent trend of installing controversial political figures over career law enforcement officials at the head of the agency after Former President Joe Biden nominated a bombastic ex-agent turned paid gun-control activist and a US Attorney turned Democratic Ohio Attorney General candidate to run the ATF.

Patel’s appointment to the ATF could foreshadow a round of firings at the agency as it did at the FBI. Patel has long called for the firing of many federal law enforcement officials he believes obstructed Trump’s first-term efforts. In the appendix of his 2023 book “Government Gangsters,” Patel included what he described as a non-exhaustive list of the “Executive Branch Deep State.” In an appearance on Steve Bannon’s podcast that same year, he said he was “dead serious” about going after those who said the 2020 election wasn’t stolen.

“We will go out and find the conspirators — not just in government, but in the media,” Patel told Bannon. “Yes, we’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections,” Patel said. “We’re going to come after you. Whether it’s criminally or civilly, we’ll figure that out.”

Democratic Senators characterized the names in Patel’s book as an “enemies list” during his FBI confirmation hearing. Patel rejected that label as a “total mischaracterization.” He also promised there would be “no politicization” at the FBI and “no retributive actions.”

“I have no interest, no desire, and will not, if confirmed, go backwards,” Patel said.

However, Senator Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) claimed whistleblowers told him Patel had been directing the firing of several FBI agents before being confirmed to the director role. Erica Knight, a Patel spokesperson, called Durbin’s claims “second-hand gossip,” and the Senate narrowly confirmed him the next day despite opposition from all Democrats and two Republicans.

The ATF has not experienced broad layoffs like some other agencies have to this point in the new Trump presidency. However, the administration has started to make some changes to the ATF and could make many more down the road.

At the end of January, President Trump gave ATF agents new deportation powers. At the beginning of February, Attorney General Pam Bondi ordered the agency to shift its resources away from alcohol and tobacco enforcement. Late last week, she also fired ATF Chief Counsel Pamala Hicks.

“These people were targeting gun owners,” Bondi told Fox News about the firing. “Not gonna happen under this administration.”

For the moment, that appears to be the only change in ATF leadership thus far. Marvin Richardson, who appeared to be leading the agency between previous ATF Director Steven Dettelbach’s resignation and Patel’s appointment, is still listed as the ATF’s Deputy Director. None of the other leadership roles have been updated on the agency’s site either.

Patel has the backing of gun-rights groups and the industry. The NRA called his appointment a “great first step by President Trump to reform this deeply troubled agency.” The National Shooting Sports Foundation, an industry trade group, said Patel has an “unswerving dedication to protecting the Constitution and the adherence to the rule of law,” and they expect him to roll back changes made during the Biden Administration.

“Like the FBI, the ATF was weaponized by the previous administration. In the case of ATF, it was to carry out a radical gun control agenda,” Larry Keane, the group’s general counsel, said in a statement. “President Trump’s appointment of Acting Director Patel to lead the ATF will return the bureau to its proper role as a law enforcement agency laser focused on combatting violent crime and illegal firearms trafficking, and to act as a non-partisan regulator of the firearm industry.”

Meanwhile, gun-control activists slammed the appointment. Everytown for Gun Safety said Patel heading the ATF “makes us all less safe.”

“Trump knows exactly what he’s doing by putting a gun extremist who won’t enforce gun laws at the head of the agency responsible for enforcing gun laws,” the group posted. “That is a choice—one that puts our lives at risk.”

Patel has talked about some of his beliefs on gun policy and the ATF in recent years. When pressed for his position on the constitutionality of background checks on gun sales and the federal machinegun ban by California Democrat Alex Padilla during his confirmation hearing, Patel said he deferred to the Supreme Court’s interpretation.

“Whatever the courts rule in regards to the Second Amendment is protected by the Second Amendment,” he told the senator.

In November 2024, Patel spoke at a Gun Owners of America conference where he described his “mission set” as “destroying the deep state.” He attacked former ATF Director Dettelbach for backing the bumpstock ban, a policy instituted by the ATF during President Trump’s first term before being subsequently struck down by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional.

“The director of the ATF basically came out the other day and said he’s all for a bumpstock ban,” Patel said. “This is a political appointee in Washington, DC, who’s supposed to be in charge of our constitutional rights. This guy wants to take it away.”

He went on to say there is a “huge, massive organization” in Washington and beyond whose interests “are not in alignment with ours,” and “they will come for you no matter what you do.”

“The counter mandate we have is the force of Founding Fathers and the Second Amendment,” Patel said. “That is more powerful than any regulation these entities can come up with, but if you let them continue to chip away at it, they will take it away from you forever.”

He said the best way of fighting back against that group was to campaign and vote for Donald Trump.

“If you want your rights protected and if you want to wipe out the deep state in one fell swoop, you, the gun owners of America, have that unique opportunity,” Patel said.