Dan Bongino, pictured in 2021, has been chosen for the function as FBI deputy director within the second Trump administration.
Calla Kessler/for The Washington Submit by way of Getty Photos
conceal caption
toggle caption
Calla Kessler/for The Washington Submit by way of Getty Photos
The Trump administration’s decide for FBI deputy director is Dan Bongino, a former U.S. Secret Service agent-turned-conservative commentator whose fiery assist of President Trump has earned him a large following — and seen him banned from YouTube for selling misinformation.
Bongino, 50, hosts The Dan Bongino Present, a syndicated radio present and every day podcast that was ranked the 7th most-popular podcast within the U.S. in January, in response to business analyst PodTrac.
Trump stated in his announcement that Bongino is “keen and ready” to surrender his present with a purpose to serve.
“Nice information for Regulation Enforcement and American Justice!” Trump wrote on Sunday evening. “Dan Bongino, a person of unimaginable love and fervour for our Nation, has simply been named the following DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF THE FBI, by the person who would be the greatest ever Director, Kash Patel.”
The function of deputy director, which supervises home and worldwide operations, has historically gone to a profession FBI agent. Bongino has by no means labored for the FBI, although he served within the New York police division.
Bongino defended Patel in an episode of his podcast that aired final week, titled “The Golden Age of Republican Politics.” Bongino stated he had identified Patel for a very long time and “I can let you know with certainty that Kash Patel is there for one cause: He is there to make the FBI nice once more.”
“People, if we would not have a reputable deterrent to spies on this nation, counterintelligence, to terrorists which can be planning plots right here overtly, some coordination entity for each transnational and interstate crime, we’re not going to have a rustic,” he added. “Kash is dedicated to that and that solely.”
Patel — a fierce critic of the FBI with no expertise as a senior legislation enforcement official — was narrowly confirmed by the Senate and sworn in as FBI director final week, overcoming Democrats’ issues about his loyalty to Trump and health to steer an company that’s imagined to be nonpartisan and impartial from the White Home.
Republicans welcomed his affirmation, arguing he might make adjustments to the bureau, which some on the correct have accused of concentrating on conservatives lately. Patel, searching for to assuage doubts at his January hearing, stated if confirmed he would “stay centered on the FBI’s core mission.”
NPR has reached out to Bongino for extra details about his views on the normal independence of the FBI and to ask whether or not Patel was concerned in his choice.
With no Senate affirmation required, Bongino will quickly be Patel’s right-hand man. This is what else to find out about him.
He is a veteran of the NYPD and Secret Service
Bongino holds an MBA from Penn State College, and grasp’s and bachelor’s levels from the Metropolis College of New York.
An archived marketing campaign web site for Bongino’s 2012 Maryland Senate bid says he started his profession with the New York Police Division in 1995, getting into the Cadet program whereas attending CUNY and turning into a full-time officer two years later.
Bongino joined the U.S. Secret Service in 1999, first investigating federal crimes within the New York Discipline Workplace and ultimately turning into an teacher on the Secret Service Coaching Academy in Maryland, in response to the archived web site.
He joined the Presidential Safety Division in 2006 and served on the main points for presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
New Yorker author Evan Osnos, who profiled Bongino in 2022, informed NPR’s Fresh Air that yr that Bongino was referred to as a reliable, well-liked agent who “by no means talked about politics.”
Osnos stated that shortly after resigning from the Secret Service in 2011, when requested about working with Obama, Bongino praised him as a superb man and father. Within the years that adopted, nonetheless, he repeatedly criticized the previous president and his administration as “corrupt” and “divisive.”
“There’s been this speedy transformation of him over the course of the years since then, and I feel it is caught a number of the folks he labored with on the Secret Service very a lot unexpectedly,” Osnos stated. “Someone stated on this article that it is like there’s two Dan Bonginos: There’s the agent, and now there’s the politico.”
Bongino had political ambitions of his personal, because it turned out.
He ran for a U.S. Senate seat in Maryland in 2012, successful the Republican major however dropping within the normal election. He additionally ran unsuccessfully for congressional seats in 2014 and 2016 in Maryland and Florida, after relocating there along with his household.
He created his personal media empire
Dan Bongino pictured at Fox Information Channel Studios in June 2019. The previous Fox host has some of the in style podcasts within the U.S.
Roy Rochlin/Getty Photos
conceal caption
toggle caption
Roy Rochlin/Getty Photos
After his foiled congressional bids, Bongino turned his focus towards the media and began a podcast in his basement. Initially referred to as The Renegade Republican, it touted “downloads within the hundreds of thousands” by September 2016.
“To place it in clear phrases, 5 – 6 years in the past, he was beginning a podcast in his basement, and he was placing shifting blankets on the wall as a sort of homespun studio,” Osnos stated in 2022. “After which he had this terribly precipitous rise via the conservative broadcasting ranks, to the purpose that at the moment, he has a podcast, which at some factors has been the No. 1 on this planet.”
Osnos attributed Bongino’s speedy rise to a number of components, together with his legislation enforcement background — which he says gave him a credibility that endeared him to different main conservative broadcasters — in addition to his sensationalistic type and early assist of Trump.
“When Trump was within the presidency, Bongino would go on within the morning on Fox and would reward the president for both issues he had performed or not performed, after which Trump would see that after which tweet about Bongino and would usually discuss him within the White Home, in response to sources,” Osnos stated within the 2022 interview.
Bongino’s profile continued to rise all through Trump’s first time period, as his podcast grew more and more profitable. He hosted a present on the Nationwide Rifle Affiliation’s internet TV Channel, NRATV, for less than a year in 2018.
“My whole life proper now could be about proudly owning the libs,” he stated in a single phase, serving to popularize the Republican catchphrase.
In 2019, he launched Bongino Report, a pro-Trump information aggregation website within the type of the Drudge Report. That very same yr, Bongino formally joined Fox News as a contributor.
After the dying of conservative discuss present host Rush Limbaugh in 2021, podcast community Cumulus Media tapped Bongino to take over his slot. He additionally began internet hosting the Fox present Unfiltered on Saturday nights, a gig he held till parting methods with the community in 2023 over what he described as failed contract negotiations.
Bongino has additionally revealed about half a dozen books, some about his time within the Secret Service and others in regards to the first Trump administration, with titles together with Exonerated: The Failed Takedown of President Donald Trump by the Swamp and Observe the Cash: The Stunning Deep State Connections of the Anti-Trump Cabal.
He is been criticized for spreading misinformation
Misinformation specialists say Bongino has used his platform to unfold conspiracy theories and falsehoods, together with in regards to the Mueller investigation, the COVID-19 pandemic and Trump’s 2020 election loss.
The Institute for Strategic Dialogue cited Bongino as one of many key right-wing figures pushing false claims of voter fraud main as much as the 2020 election. He continued to amplify Trump’s lies in regards to the election being stolen, main the human rights group Avaaz to call him one of many prime 5 “superspreaders of election misinformation” within the weeks that adopted.
NPR reported in 2021 that Ashli Babbitt, the Trump supporter who was fatally shot by police whereas storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, had retweeted Bongino 50 times for the reason that earlier February.
Bongino additionally discovered himself in scorching water over his stance on COVID-19 precautions. In late 2021, he threatened to quit his radio present over Cumulus Media’s vaccine mandate — regardless of having been vaccinated himself.
Bongino announced on his radio show in October 2020 that he had been identified with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He informed Megyn Kelly in 2024 that he had been in remission for 2 years.
Bongino was permanently banned from YouTube in 2022 after violating its pandemic misinformation coverage by posting a video questioning the effectiveness of masks. Following that call, Google stopped serving ads on Bongino’s web site.
Bongino has repeatedly criticized the agency he has now been tapped to assist oversee, together with calling it the FBI “misplaced, damaged” and “irredeemably corrupt” in a lengthy 2022 monologue on his Fox present wherein he cited the FBI’s search of Trump’s Florida residence — a court-authorized search related to an investigation into his dealing with of categorized paperwork — as the ultimate straw.
“I imply it after I say it: It is well past time to wash this FBI home up,” he stated. “They’ve burned each final shred of religion and belief freedom-loving Individuals had in it.”
