Trump picks Kash Patel to run FBI

US President-elect Donald Trump has picked a former aide, Kash Patel, to lead the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), an agency Patel has often criticised.

A former US defence department chief of staff in the first Trump administration, Patel has been a steadfast supporter of the incoming Republican president, BBC reports.

For Patel to take the job, the current FBI director Christopher Wray would need to resign or be fired - although Trump did not call on him to do so in his post.

Separately, Trump said he plans to nominate Chad Chronister, sheriff of Florida’s Hillsborough County, as head of the Drug Enforcement Agency.

Patel and Chronister join Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi in filling out Trump’s law enforcement picks.

Also on Saturday, Trump announced he had has selected Charles Kushner to be ambassador to France.

Mr Kushner is a real-estate developer and the father of Jared Kushner, husband of his daughter Ivanka Trump.

The nomination appears to be the first administration position that Trump has formally offered to a relative since his re-election.

All three choices will have to be confirmed by a majority vote in the US Senate.

Patel is Trump loyalist who shares the president-elect's suspicion of government institutions.

“Kash is a brilliant lawyer, investigator, and ‘America First’ fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending justice, and protecting the American people,” Trump posted on Truth Social, his social media platform, adding that Patel was “an advocate for truth, accountability, and the constitution”.