Dan Bongino, the new deputy director of the FBI, is a highly influential conservative media figure and a “significant shareholder” of the right-wing video platform Rumble.
Just like recently confirmed FBI Director Kash Patel, Bongino has no history in the bureau. The New York Times saidthe two men constitute “the least experienced leadership pair in the bureau’s history.” Instead, Bongino is a former NYPD officer and Secret Service agent. He has pursued several unsuccessful political campaigns of his own, NPR reported.
More important, perhaps, is his media career: In addition to past stints with Fox News and the National Rifle Association, Bongino hosts a podcast and radio show with millions of listeners and took over Rush Limbaugh’s radio time slot after Limbaugh’s death in 2021. Links from Bongino, who also has a prolific social media presence, are often among the most shared on Facebook.
Bongino has also invested in right-wing media platforms that promote fringe figures and beliefs.
At one time, he was an investor in Parler, the Twitter alternative, though the company’s ownership has since changed.
Bongino is still a “significant shareholder” in YouTube competitor Rumble, the company said in a statement Monday. The website hosts influential right-wing creators including Kimberly Guilfoyle, Steven Crowder and Russell Brand.
Bongino promotes his own content on Rumble as well. In its statement, the company said Bongino “set new standards for streaming excellence, routinely leading all online live streams in audience size and concurrent viewers, regardless of platform.” The claim wasn’t immediately verifiable.
“Bongino’s appointment to a top federal law enforcement position is just the latest example of Donald Trump’s blending of government and media.”
In a corporate biography listed in some SEC filings, Rumble lists Bongino among several creators it notes have “found a new home on Rumble” over the past five years. “Given the third-party advertising arrangement related to Bongino’s content, the revenue Rumble derived from the content is not material to the company,” Monday’s statement assured investors.
“Bongino Inc.,” which is wholly owned by the incoming FBI deputy director, owns over 16 million shares of Class A Common stock, or more than 5% of Rumble, according to a January SEC filing. The stock is worth around $170 million, according to the financial data website Simply Wall St.
Vice President JD Vance’s venture capital firm Narya is among Rumble’s other shareholders.
Bongino’s appointment to a top federal law enforcement position is just the latest example of Donald Trump’s blending of government and media. The defense and transportation secretaries are both former TV personalities; Patel hosted his own podcast and was also a repeat guest of the far-right host Stew Peters.
As a media personality, Bongino has used his massive platform to amplify some of the core lies of Trump’s political project. One 2020 analysis determined he was a “superspreader” of misinformation about the presidential election that year.
In 2022, Bongino was banned from YouTube for violating the company’s pandemic misinformation policy. Google, YouTube’s parent company, also pulled ad services from Bongino’s website. A Google spokesperson cited “misleading and harmful content around the COVID-19 pandemic and demonstrably false claims about our elections.”
Though Bongino said he had personally received the COVID-19 vaccine, he threatened to quit his radio show in 2021 over his parent company’s vaccine mandate, which was later lifted. After the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, NPR reported that Ashli Babbit — who was killed by a Capitol Police officer while attempting to access a portion of the building where lawmakers were evacuating — had frequently reposted Bongino, including 50 times the previous February alone.
Like Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Bongino frequently casts members of the American left as domestic enemies. “These people want you dead,” he said in 2021, a New Yorker profile noted — a reference to pro-vaccine advocates who Bongino asserted were happy when conservative anti-vaxxers got sick.
“My entire life right now is about owning the libs,” he said separately.
Bongino’s appointment was a surprise to some in the FBI. In January, Patel had agreed that his deputy “should continue to be an on-board, active Special Agent as has been the case for 117 years for many compelling reasons, including operational expertise and experience, as well as the trust of our Special Agent population,” a Sunday FBI Agents Association newsletter stated, according to The New York Times and The Associated Press.
“Dan is stepping away from an incredibly successful career because he believes in this mission—together, we are ready to put the mission first,” Patel wrote of his new deputy Monday.
Go Ad-Free — And Protect The Free Press
Already contributed? Log in to hide these messages.
Patel is apparently a listener of Bongino’s: After Bongino interviewed former FBI agent and Biden administration critic Kyle Seraphin in 2022, Patel reached out to Seraphin, and Patel’s foundation subsequently gave Seraphin $10,000, NBC News reported last month.