President Trump will not make a visit to the FBI headquarters this week after the White House was told Trump would not be well-received after he fired FBI Director James Comey, according to multiple reports Thursday.
White House deputy press secretary Sarah Sanders had told reporters earlier on Thursday that the president would travel to the Washington, D.C., FBI headquarters sometime in the next couple days.
But that idea was scuttled after the FBI informed the White House that Trump’s dismissal of Comey earlier this week had soured the mood at the agency, even though many FBI officials voted for Trump during the election.
“My sense is most FBI employees feel a loyalty to Comey,” an unnamed source who works at the FBI headquarters told NBC News. “And whether they agree or disagree with the way he handled the email case, like and respect him … Trump would not be well-received at headquarters.”
Before he was dismissed, Comey had asked for more resources in his agency’s investigation on Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to reports. The Justice Department says this is “totally false.”
Trump told NBC’s Lester Holt on Thursday that he has long known that he was going to fire Comey, even before a recommendation by the Justice Department.
