Feb. 24 (UPI) — President Donald Trump has named Dan Bongino, a former Secret Service agent who has gained popularity as a right-wing pundit and podcaster, as the FBI deputy director.
Trump made the announcement on his Truth Social platform Sunday night, describing Bongino as “a man of incredible love and passion for our Country.”
“Fairness, Justice, Law and Order will be brought back to America, and quickly,” Trump said in the post.
The president said Kash Patel, who was sworn in as FBI director last week, picked Bongino to serve as his deputy.
“Thank you Mr. President, Attorney General [Pam] Bondi and Director Patel,” Bongino said on X following the announcement.
Bongino being named as FBI deputy director continues a trend of key roles in the Trump administration being filled by controversial, arguably underqualified media personalities and Trump loyalists.
Though a 12-year Secret Service veteran who protected Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush and a former New York police officer, Bongino has never served in the FBI, which has long been the expectation of those who serve as second-in-command of the office.
Bongino has made a name for himself in recent years as a right-wing pundit and author who is known for spreading conspiracy theories online, attacking Trump’s detractors and stating in a 2018 interview that “My entire life right now is about owning the libs.”
Like many of Trump’s picks, Bongino was a Fox News personality.
He is also the host of The Dan Bongino Show, which he has used to spread baseless claims, as recently as January, that the FBI was involved in the placing of pipe bombs outside the Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on Congress.
He claimed the suspect was “an insider” known to the FBI, which was concealing the person’s identity from the public. He called it the “biggest political scandal of our time” and that the FBI was hiding a “fake assassination plot to shut down questioning of the 2020 election.”
Bongino also railed against the FBI following the raid of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in August 2022, which was conducted in connection to an investigation into the retention of classified documents from Trump’s first term in office.
Bongino said on X, then called Twitter, that “EVERYONE involved in this DOJ/FBI abomination … must be immediately terminated when the tyrants are thrown out of office.”
The choice of Patel and now Bongino to head the FBI has raised concerns about not only the qualifications of those chosen to lead the department as neither have served in the law enforcement agency, but also about presidential influence of an office that is expected to operate independently of the White House.
“Trump has chosen grifters to lead the FBI,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said on X, referring to Patel selling “K$SH” branded merchandise and Bongino using his podcast to sell survivalist gear.
“I know this feels like a bad dream. It isn’t.”
Trump has made other controversial picks from the Fox News pool of pundits and hosts to fill crucial positions, most notably Pete Hegseth, the secretary of Defense.
Bongino and Patel will oversee about 38,000 employes, including 13,700 FBI agents.