While FBI Director Kash Patel reportedly canceled his flight to Chicago after a last-minute White House summons, his girlfriend, country music singer Alexis Wilkins, sprinkled in a few patriotic moments during her performance Saturday at Windy City Smokeout.
An American flag hung from the drummer’s set, with red, white and blue lighting often illuminating the stage under the sunny, afternoon sky outside the United Center.
At one point, Wilkins told the crowd this was her first time in Chicago, adding, “I love this city.”
Toward the end, after performing “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue,” by Toby Keith, Wilkins told the crowd, “God bless this country. God bless our military.”
Many spectators weren’t aware that Wilkins, 27, has been dating Patel, 46, for more than three years.
“Did not know that,” said Bailey Steadman, 30, from Knoxville, Tennessee. “It doesn’t change anything. Her music stands for herself [and] that’s what I enjoyed.”
“I thoroughly enjoyed that. I will be adding her to my playlist, for sure,” Steadman said, adding that he was already somewhat familiar with Wilkins but Saturday was his first time seeing her live.
Steadman was dressed in American flag overalls and bandana.
“It’s a barbecue and country music festival in Chicago and I’m like, that’s as America as it gets, so you gotta represent,” said Steadman, who’s attending all five days of the festival with friends.
Efrain Vazquez, 45, and his girlfriend, from far west Montgomery, came to the festival for “the barbecue, live music” and to see their friend who’s a cook with one of the vendors, Bub City.
“It’s a nice festival, great weather, great food from what we’ve had so far. Nice to be out in the open air,” he said.
Vazquez knows of Patel but had no idea he and Wilkins are dating. He said he wouldn’t have cared whether or not Patel had shown up Saturday.
“It wouldn’t influence me either way. I back away from politics like a bus on fire,” Vazquez said.
Patel reportedly had planned to be at Windy City Smokeout, but MS NOW reported that Patel abruptly canceled a flight Friday to see Wilkins perform after top Trump administration officials who were “disturbed by a range of actions by Patel” summoned him to the White House.
The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Wilkins’ team also did not respond to a request for an interview at Windy City Smokeout.
In social media posts, Patel and the FBI Rapid Response X account disputed that Trump administration officials were upset with Patel and said he was called to the White House “for official business.”
“Yes, I called MS NOW dumba—-s this morning and then later [Friday] they post an article only gold plated dumba—-s like Ken and Carol could write,” Patel wrote on X, referring to the writers of the MS NOW report, Ken Dilanian and Carol Leonnig.
Wilkins reposted Patel’s post. She also used the hand over mouth emoji on another repost of a post by Rapid Response 47, a White House account that claims to be “holding Fake News accountable.”
In that post, referring to the report that Trump officials were upset with Patel, Rapid Response 47 wrote, “Fake News at its finest. Nobody was frustrated. In fact, we’ll start boosting and promoting his earlier tweet even more. Congrats MSNOW — you all just played yourselves, dumba—-s.”
Last month, Wilkins filed a defamation lawsuit against MS NOW, Dilanian and Leonnig over an article they published in December that cited anonymous sources and reported that Patel had “ordered that the security detail protecting his girlfriend escort one of her allegedly inebriated friends home after a night of partying in Nashville.”
Wilkins’ lawyers claimed that the article “falsely asserted that Ms. Wilkins demanded, and Director Patel ordered, that federal agents assigned to her security detail — which did not even exist at the time — escort an intoxicated friend home after a ‘night of partying.’”
