Last week, the U.S. Senate confirmed Kash Patel, a dedicated Trump loyalist and conspiracy theorist, as the next director of the FBI. Days later, President Donald Trump made perhaps an even more alarming pick to be Patel’s deputy director: right-wing commentator Dan Bongino.
Trump made the announcement in a Truth Social post on Sunday evening, calling Bongino “a man of incredible love and passion for our Country.” The role, which does not require Senate approval, is hugely powerful. Bongino will lead the FBI’s day-to-day operations as well as the agency’s intelligence and investigative activities both nationally and abroad.
Bongino, a native of Queens, previously served with the New York Police Department and as an agent with the United States Secret Service but has no past experience with the FBI — other than railing against it. On his popular podcast and in other settings, Bongino has trafficked in conspiracies and extremist views, sometimes involving the agency he’s set to help lead. Here, a look at some of his most notable positions.
He has railed against the FBI
Bongino has long been one of the FBI’s harshest critics, accusing the agency of intentionally targeting Trump owing to political bias. The New Yorker reported that he had once alleged that members of the FBI and the CIA “unquestionably tried to rig both the 2016 and 2020 election” during an episode of his radio show.
In 2022, Bongino wrote on social media, “EVERYONE involved in this DOJ/FBI abomination, from the management down to the agents, must be immediately terminated when the tyrants are thrown out of office.”
During a 2022 monologue on his Fox News show, Unfiltered With Dan Bongino, he denounced the FBI as “irredeemably corrupt at this point” and said it was time to clean house.
In response to a 2023 Washington Examiner article on an FBI informant later charged with lying to the agency, Bongino alleged that there was collusion between the Democratic Party and the FBI:
That same year, Bongino said that the Durham report, the culmination of a yearslong inquiry into the FBI’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, is “reason number 1,492 to disband the FBI as it is currently constituted.”
Despite his past rhetoric, Bongino struck a more conciliatory tone after he was named to the role. “There are dedicated people in the FBI who take their oath to the Constitution seriously. They deserve leadership that will back them up, protect their mission, and ensure they can do their jobs,” he said in a statement on Monday.
His primary mission is “owning the libs”
In 2018, Bongino joined NRATV, the gun-rights advocacy group’s digital channel, which shut down a year later.
The platform promoted his hiring by sharing a clip of Bongino blending up whole lemons and drinking the contents with the title “Dan Bongino Makes Don Lemon-aide on NRATV,” a clear allusion to then–CNN anchor Don Lemon, with whom Bongino has clashed in the past.
In one segment, Bongino railed against Democrats for the Supreme Court confirmation hearing for Brett Kavanaugh, calling the process “pure, unadulterated evil.” Bongino made it clear what his personal ethos would be moving forward.
“My life is all about owning the libs now. We have got to get this guy appointed on the Supreme Court,” he said, per HuffPost.
He has promoted COVID-19 conspiracies
Bongino has come under fire for his promotion of COVID-19 misinformation, using his platform to question the efficacy of masks and vaccines against the virus. The podcaster has called people who mask in public settings “morons” numerous times, voicing that opinion even as recently as 2024:
Bongino has also voiced his opposition to vaccine mandates, once threatening to quit his own radio show over the mandate set by his employer, Cumulus Media. Though Bongino has said that he is personally vaccinated against COVID-19 because of his past medical treatment for Hodgkin’s lymphoma, he said he was protesting on behalf of other employees who have alleged they were let go owing to their refusal to get the vaccine. “You can have me or the mandate. But you can’t have both of us,” he said at the time.
But Bongino later returned to his show without any signs that Cumulus had budged on the issue, per the Washington Post.
Bongino’s views came with a price. In 2022, YouTube announced that it had permanently banned Bongino for violating its policy on COVID-19 misinformation. Google later followed suit by pulling ads from Bongino’s website.
