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SINCE DAN BONGINO WAS SWORN IN as deputy FBI director in mid-March, the pugnacious former talk radio host has taken to social media at least seven times to make something clear: he’s working really, really hard.
Like, insanely hard. You just can’t see it yet.
“If you think I upended my prior job and lifestyle to take a vacation in FBI headquarters, then I can’t help you,” Bongino posted in a March 30 message directed at no one in particular. “You’ve already decided, despite logic and reason, that all is lost. It is not. Not even close.”
A few days later, he was back on X, assuring the nameless naysayers that stuff was definitely in the works even if it wasn’t readily apparent.
“Just because you don’t immediately see it doesn’t mean it isn’t happening,” Bongino wrote on April 2.
Then on April 6, Bongino returned with a new assurance. Things were “happening” at the FBI and not “by accident.” But the reason it may seem like things weren’t happening was not because they weren’t. It was because “of the sensitivity” of the stuff happening. If he were to post about it, a crook might see it.
“Bad guys read this stuff too,” he wrote.
The role of the FBI deputy director is immense. Duties have included such things as running high-profile investigations and counterintelligence cases. Often, they labor in obscurity, speaking out only when a case is done—and rarely even then.
Bongino is not your normal deputy director. Since being sworn in, he has spent a remarkable amount of time in the public conversation, trying to calm his social media skeptics. His pleas for patience come amid growing frustration among the MAGA grassroots over the job he and FBI Director Kash Patel are doing. That frustration has several causes, ranging from a swatting spree that targeted pro-Trump influencers to the deep-state Democrats who supposedly committed serious crimes against Trump yet still haven’t been arrested.
The FBI declined to comment on the work and social media habits of its second-in-command.
MAGA frustration with the FBI may have hit a new peak last week, when the New York Times reported that Patel was appointing FBI Agent Steven Jensen head of the Washington field office.
Jensen, like most FBI agents, is unknown to the general public. But for Trump supporters who bought into the idea that the FBI was a sort of liberal Gestapo, Jensen is something of a sinister figure. He was a top official on the FBI’s January 6th investigation and worked on the bureau’s response to groups like the Proud Boys disrupting school board meetings, which some on the right viewed as wild government overreach. One witness interviewed in 2023 by the staff of the House Committee on the Weaponization of Government, a former FBI agent who has since become a darling of the conspiracy-theory right, portrayed Jensen as overenthusiastic about catching January 6th perpetrators.
For someone outside of MAGA-land, that might seem like reason to promote Jensen. But for Trump supporters, the idea that Patel of all people would reward Jensen—rather than throw him in Guantánamo Bay—was so outlandish that it couldn’t be believed. The Gateway Pundit managed to get a whole weekend news cycle out of their own “high-ranking official” in the FBI, who claimed the Times report about Jensen was “fake news.” (They eventually admitted the Times was right.)
The initial reaction of Tom Fitton, head of the right-wing group Judicial Watch, was a single word: “WHUT?”
Naturally, news of Jensen’s promotion landed especially poorly among former January 6th defendants. Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, who was serving a 22-year prison sentence before Trump granted clemency, groused that Jensen “should be no where [sic] near a badge. He should be at best a Walmart greeter.”
BUT BONGINO’S AND PATEL’S PROBLEMS go beyond personnel. The problem with being a major law enforcement official is that people may expect you to, ya know, solve crimes, like the string of swattings in March targeting right-wing influencers. InfoWars personality Owen Shroyer has said he was among the victims.
After the swatting incidents, Patel vowed to find the culprits. But about a month has passed and no one has been arrested.
MAGA personalities are getting anxious and some aren’t convinced that the FBI—their FBI—is taking the crimes against them seriously.
In an interview Friday with pro-Trump figure Breanna Morello, Shroyer and fellow swatting victim Larry Taunton complained that the FBI had kept them in the dark about the case’s progress. Taunton also appeared to reference Bongino’s posting spree.
“I keep seeing a lot of tough-talking tweets,” Taunton said. “In the amount of time it takes to prepare a tweet, one could pick up the phone and give people like me or Owen [Shroyer] a phone call.”
Bongino and Patel are learning the same lesson Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faced during the Texas measles outbreak: They can’t really give their fans everything they’ve been promised.
In Bongino’s case, his audience has been told for years that prominent liberals and deep-state operatives have committed blatant crimes against the Trump family that should be easy to prosecute. Yet no top Democrats have been indicted, leading Trump fans to believe Bongino is falling down on the job.
Both Patel and Bongino are MAGA heroes in good standing, but no one is truly safe in Trump world, and the recent purge of the National Security Council staff at the behest of Laura Loomer suggests that having a bad reputation with right-wing influencers is a serious issue for Trump officials.
As I wrote this newsletter, Bongino sent out yet another “trust me” tweet, his eighth. This time it was more abstract than usual.
“Let time put the puzzle pieces together, and what we’re doing will make sense,” he promised.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem took pro-Trump personality Chaya Raichik, aka “Libs of TikTok,” on an ICE raid in Phoenix on Tuesday. Raichik even got to wear an ICE officer badge on the raid ridealong:
This seemed like obvious bait to make liberals mad, and indeed someone was triggered. But it was Raichik’s ostensible allies on the right!
“Not sure what this is but if this is today’s ‘journalism’ we are not better off,” said former 60 Minutes correspondent Lara Logan, who’s drifted so far she can’t even see the deep end.
“This is just embarrassing,” posted Carlos Arrelano, a Gateway Pundit writer. “We don’t need more influencer photo ops and cabinet members playing dress up. We need this admin seriously focused on deportations.”
Why is Raichik getting raked over the coals? I think this reflects some fatigue on the right toward “influencers,” particularly those who are seen as pulling punches against the administration in exchange for access. Raichik was also at the White House for the Epstein-binders debacle. Altogether, the real diehards see her as part of a group of MAGA influencers who are trotted out occasionally to create the illusion that Trump is delivering for his base.
Those who feel that Trump isn’t delivering—especially on immigration—don’t like being pandered to. The most recent deportation numbers show that Trump actually deported fewer people in February than Biden did the same month a year ago. And the crowd that was convinced Trump would deport millions and millions of people, somehow lowering prices on housing and groceries as a result, is getting restless!
“This shit enrages me. Deportation numbers are low, denying that is wrong,” posted far-right X user 9mm_SMG. “Instead, we’re bringing libsoftiktok along in a circus event.”
Great Job Will Sommer & the Team @ The Bulwark Source link for sharing this story.
