What Dan Bongino lost

Dan Bongino, a right-wing media personality who has spent the past nine months serving as Donald Trump’s handpicked FBI deputy director, is departing the agency. MSNOW first broke the news on Wednesday afternoon, later confirmed by Bongino himself. Many immediately speculated that Bongino would return to his life as a far-right influencer and resume running Silverloch Productions, the company he founded with his wife to produce his former podcast. President Trump appeared to confirm that move amid earlier resignation rumors, telling reporters Bongino “wants to go back to his show.”​

Bongino has had a rough go at the FBI. Just two months into the job, he melted down on FOX & Friends about having to work in a room “with four walls” in D.C. and arrive at the office “at 7:30am.” Two months later, he was reportedly clashing with the Attorney General over her mishandling of the Epstein Files. And in August, he got layered, with President Trump appointing a “co-deputy” at the FBI. Throughout his brief tenure, rumors swirled that he wasn’t long for This Town.

Before joining the Bureau, Bongino had built enormous clout online, especially among Republican grassroots audiences, by spreading conspiracy theories and red-meat political content. He was once heralded as running one of the most influential political accounts on Facebook, where his posts regularly topped engagement charts during the platform’s political peak from 2015 to 2020.

His podcast, The Dan Bongino Show, was also wildly successful, drawing over 16 million downloads in July 2024 and ranking #2 on Apple Podcasts that month. Years earlier, he had moved the show from YouTube to an exclusive streaming deal with Rumble, where he became one of the platform’s biggest creators and a major shareholder.

But taking the FBI job meant giving all that up — at least temporarily…