This is intriguing. After Donald Trump’s vague commentary over the weekend that Dan Bongino was “in good shape” it was assumed that Trump had smoothed ruffled feathers and Bongino would return to work. That was not the case yesterday and if he has shown up today at the FBI the information is not readily available online. So maybe the feud continues. Or, maybe Bongino longs for his podcast, which is what I think.
Dan Bongino’s future as FBI deputy director is still up in the air on Monday after his no call no show on Friday, as the fallout from the Justice Department’s dismissal of the Epstein case continues into its second week.
Bongino has apparently iced out all communications with his DOH colleagues, not having spoken with anyone at the department since Wednesday, according to a CNN report. The feud between Bongino and Attorney General Pam Bondi has reportedly gotten so bad that Vice President JD Vance spent the weekend trying to mediate. Bongino, Bondi, and FBI Director Kash Patel have been the eye of the storm of incensed MAGA supporters who once viewed the trio as potential arbiters of the Epstein client list and the exposure of the greater deep state. All three made promises along those exact lines, Bongino particularly.
Sources told CNN Bongino’s future in the administration is basically untenable, and he is unlikely to stay in this role in the long-term.
“I think so. I spoke to him today,” Trump said when asked if Bongino was still FBI deputy director on Sunday. “Dan Bongino is a very good guy. I’ve known him a long time. I’ve done his show many, many times. And he sounded terrific, actually, no, I think he’s in good shape.”
Some MAGA supporters, like Laura Loomer, have called for Bondi’s firing, to no avail. Patel has denied any rumors of his resignation.
Bondi is not going to be fired. Cross that one off of your Bingo card. I honestly believe that Dan Bongino is looking for a way to return to podcasting because he realizes what a mistake he made leaving it in the first place. He was happy in podcasting, complaining and proselytizing conspiracy theory. Now, at the FBI, he’s actually expected to work.
And the work not only isn’t glamorous, it goes against Bongino’s grain. He was vociferous, when on the airwaves, about the Epstein file being released. Then he got on the inside and found out that that’s the last thing Trump wants to happen. So now Bongino is stuck. He’s got to show up and do work that he doesn’t want to do and he can’t do the work he thought he was going to do, as MAGA crusader, bringing globalist pedophiles to heel.
I guess we just watch this out of the corner of one eye and see what plays out. The tragedy of Bongino is that he’s wildly miscast in the role he’s playing now as Deputy Director of the FBI. He had found his niche as a MAGA podcaster. And so he suffers and the tragedy is that so does law enforcement and so do we.
And this same tragedy permeates the government now. The Pentagon has got to be a miserable place to work nowadays with Pete Hegseth wildly miscast as Secretary of Defense. And of course the real problem is that we don’t know how much damage is being done and what it will take to undo it, in the hopeful event that the ship of state is once more back in capable hands after Trump departs.
“The Pentagon has got to be a miserable place to work nowadays with Pete Hegseth wildly miscast as Secretary of Defense.”
I like the use of “miscast” which is a pretty good word to describe everyone that Drumpf has selected for his (mis)administration.
It’s even more interesting given the fact that there have been suggestions that Drumpf’s first real choice for his professional life was to work in Hollywood, primarily as a producer or director. Given the people that Drumpf has “cast” for the “movie” he’s also decided to star in (“Nightmare at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue”), can you imagine the nightmares he’d have inflicted on the world of cinema? He’d probably replace Ed Wood for the title of “World’s All-Time Worst Hollywood Director.” (The sad thing is that Wood was not half-bad but he didn’t have the real skills–or budgets–to realize his ideas and his imagination. But I think I’d rather sit through an Ed Wood marathon on repeat than have to deal with the hellscape we’ve had to endure these not-even-six-months.)