By The Editorial Board
Only 11 days after President Trump was inaugurated for a second term, his administration began a purge of the F.B.I. that now threatens some of the bureau鈥檚 most important missions. His appointees ousted eight of its most experienced managers, including the division heads overseeing national security, cybersecurity and criminal investigations. Several had worked on prosecutions of Jan. 6 rioters or had assisted in the various investigations of Mr. Trump, and Emil Bove, then the acting deputy attorney general, said they could not be trusted to carry out the president鈥檚 agenda.
That was just the beginning. Over the past five months, many F.B.I. agents, including other top managers and national security experts, have been fired, pressured to leave or transferred to lesser roles. Hundreds have resigned on their own, unwilling to follow the demands of the Trump administration. Their absence has left a vacuum in divisions that are supposed to protect the public. These losses have 鈥渙bliterated decades of experience in national security and criminal matters at the F.B.I.,鈥 Adam Goldman of The Times wrote.
Mr. Trump鈥檚 playbook for the F.B.I. is plain to see. He is turning it into an enforcement agency for MAGA鈥檚 priorities. He is chasing out agents who might refuse to play along and installing loyalists in their place. He is seeking to remove the threat of investigation for his friends and allies. And he is trying to instill fear in his critics and political opponents. Among his many efforts to weaken American democracy and amass more power for himself, his politicization of the F.B.I. is one of the most blatant.
These developments should unsettle all Americans, regardless of party. As one former Justice Department official told NBC News, the decimation of the bureau鈥檚 senior ranks has left it 鈥渃ompletely unprepared to respond to a crisis, including the fallout from the current conflict in the Middle East.鈥 Mr. Trump鈥檚 politicization of the F.B.I. has left it less able to combat terrorism, foreign espionage, biosecurity threats, organized crime, online scams, white-collar crime, drug trafficking and more.