Actually by resigning before he could be fired, Wray just checkmated Donny.
David French suggests in the New York Times that Wray’s resignation may have been an act of defiance against Trump, a "fuck you" that may not be immediately apparent to the naked eye. We don’t know if he’s right or not — read through his Bluesky post and the comments below it to suss it out for yourself — but the general gist is that if Wray had stayed on and waited for Trump to fire him, Trump could theoretically have gotten Kash into a position where he’d be eligible to be appointed as acting director while Wray was still emptying out his desk, skipping the Senate altogether. It has to do with the Vacancies Reform Act, which governs who is eligible to be appointed as an acting. Kash currently doesn’t qualify in any way.
Actually by resigning before he could be fired, Wray just checkmated Donny.
David French suggests in the New York Times that Wray’s resignation may have been an act of defiance against Trump, a "fuck you" that may not be immediately apparent to the naked eye. We don’t know if he’s right or not — read through his Bluesky post and the comments below it to suss it out for yourself — but the general gist is that if Wray had stayed on and waited for Trump to fire him, Trump could theoretically have gotten Kash into a position where he’d be eligible to be appointed as acting director while Wray was still emptying out his desk, skipping the Senate altogether. It has to do with the Vacancies Reform Act, which governs who is eligible to be appointed as an acting. Kash currently doesn’t qualify in any way.