Did the FBI Break Dan Bongino’s ‘Free Thinker’ Brand?

On January 5, Dan Bongino, fresh off a brief and chaotic ten-month stint as FBI Deputy Director, returned to X with an announcement: his hit podcast “The Dan Bongino Show” would be returning to the airwaves soon. He told his millions of followers he missed them.Then, more curiously, he vowed to continue blocking on X “black-pillers, life-losers, grifters and bums” who he believed were hijacking the political movement he helped build.The comments baffled some longtime fans, including comedian and political commentator Bobby Sausalito, who goes by “Bobby Sauce.”Then-FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino looks on from on the sidelines before the game between the Houston Rockets and the Dallas Mavericks at American Airlines Center on December 06, 2025. Tim Heitman/Getty ImagesMr. Sausalito thinks Mr. Bongino would be better simply listing the names of those he believes made his time in the FBI difficult —“judges on the left” and members of the supposed Deep State who he suspected still held sway in the bureau. “But instead of doing that, he’s like, ‘If you ask me a legitimate question, you’re a black-pill loser who lives in his parents’ basement,’” Mr. Sausalito tells the Sun. Black-pillers is internet slang for nihilistic, angry men, some of them so-called “incels” or involuntarily celibate men, who believe the world is stacked against them. Mr. Bongino also attacked libertarian podcaster Dave Smith — a self-professed free thinker who has called Israel an “apartheid state,” among other accusations— by making a thinly veiled reference to him as a “lib/black-piller symbiote,” then telling him to “go back to your momma’s spare room and write me some jokes.” The following morning, Mr. Bongino wrote to Mr. Smith in a post that, “Your family and kids must be ecstatic that their last name is ‘Smith.’” Then deputy director of the FBI, Dan Bongino, center, at the Department of Justice on December 4, 2025, Washington, DC. Andrew Harnik/Getty ImagesMr. Bongino’s inclusion of Mr. Smith’s children in his comments shocked observers like libertarian social media commentator and mother of three, Natalie Danelishen.“Here is a former public official attacking a guy’s kids! Like the audacity,” Ms. Danelishen tells the Sun. Mr. Sausalito confronted Mr. Bongino on X about his post, questioning why, after “a year in the belly of the beast, your target is comedians and people that wanted accountability?” Hours later, Mr. Bongino blocked him on X.Dan Bongino attends 2022 FOX Nation Patriot Awards at Hard Rock Live at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood on November 17, 2022 at Hollywood, Florida. Jason Koerner/Getty ImagesMr. Bongino — who was among the most popular podcasts in the country before leaving for the FBI — is excited to get back in front of a microphone. If this past week was any evidence, a large faction of his former audience — self-professed “America First” free thinkers — has turned against him, preferring to troll Mr. Bongino instead of lionizing him. Is his brief stint at the FBI to blame for this sudden loss of credibility?“I would say, unequivocally, ‘yes,’” a constitutional lawyer and self-titled “Secretary of Retribution” for Mr. Trump, Ivan Raiklin, tells the Sun. High Hopes, UnmetBoth Ms. Danelishen and Mr. Sausalito had high hopes for Mr. Bongino after he accepted President Trump’s personal invitation to become top deputy to the FBI director, MAGA stalwart Kash Patel, in 2025. They believed Mr. Bongino would be their insider to bring justice to those they considered the Deep State’s biggest violators: alleged perpetrators of election fraud, architects of COVID-19 vaccine mandates, and power players who had consorted with Jeffrey Epstein“I feel like that didn’t happen,” Ms. Danelishen tells the Sun.She is not alone in that sentiment. Mr. Bongino’s listeners also hoped he would uncover the identity of the January 6 pipe bomber, whose plot, Mr. Bongino said during a February 2, 2024 show, was orchestrated by the government “to keep Trump out of office.”Dan Bongino speaks onstage during Politicon 2018 at Los Angeles Convention Center on October 21, 2018. Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for Politicon In May 2025, Mr. Bongino announced on his official FBI X account that he and Mr. Patel were pledging additional resources for investigations into the pipe bomber and into the 2022 leaking of the Supreme Court’s draft Dobbs v. Jackson decision, a leak that abortion opponents believe was orchestrated to try to head off a final ruling. He also reopened the investigation into the discovery of cocaine inside the Biden White House during a 2023 Fourth of July event. That case had been closed by the Secret Service without, critics say, sufficient forensic investigative work or a focus on Hunter Biden, a recovering cocaine addict who frequently stayed at the White House. But once he got on the inside, Mr. Bongino, who built a media empire with his pull-no-punches approach, appeared constrained, even dejected, while in office.During a May 2025 appearance on Fox & Friends, a downtrodden Mr. Bongino said he “gave up everything” for his FBI job. “My wife is struggling,” he told Fox & Friends. “I stare at these four walls all day in D.C.”It was a moment that exuded “cowardice” to Mr. Raiklin. Dan Bongino attends Politicon 2018 at Los Angeles Convention Center on October 21, 2018. Rich Polk/Getty Images for Politicon “You want somebody to effectively go to war against the very criminals he had spoken about on his podcast, and he fails,” Mr. Raiklin tells the Sun. Then, during a sit-down interview with Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo, Mr. Bongino, much to the dismay of some of his podcast fans, seemingly closed the door on Epstein’s alleged murder. “I have seen the whole file. He killed himself,” Mr. Bongino told Ms. Bartiromo. The sudden reversal — after years of telling his podcast listeners he believed Epstein was murdered —stunned Mr. Sausalito.“You told us this was big. You told us this was the darkest, most nefarious thing ever,” Mr. Sausalito tells the Sun.Ms. Danelishen believes Mr. Bongino “failed miserably” on the Epstein files. “People need to stand on principles, not politics. One of my principles will always be to protect children. Dan failed at that,” she adds. Damage Done?In December, Mr. Bongino announced the arrest of 30-year-old Brian Cole Jr. as the alleged January 6th pipe bomber, fulfilling a promise he had made as deputy director. Following Mr. Cole’s arrest, Mr. Bongino told Fox News host Sean Hannity that, during his podcast days, he had floated controversial theories about the pipe bomber and the Epstein investigation, he was “paid in the past, Sean, for my opinions.” “That’s clear, and one day I’ll be back in that space, but that’s not what I’m paid for now. I’m paid to be your deputy director, and we base investigations on facts,” Mr. Bongino told Mr. Hannity. Paula Bongino and Dan Bongino attend Politicon 2018 at Los Angeles Convention Center on October 20, 2018. Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for PoliticonProsecutors have been tight-lipped about the pipe bomber investigation, but Mr. Cole may not be the far-left terrorist that Mr. Bongino’s podcast listeners might have expected him to be.Mr. Bongino announced he would be stepping down from the FBI later that month. “I think he wants to go back on his show,” Mr. Trump told reporters at the time.This week, Mr. Bongino confirmed “The Dan Bongino Show” will return on February 2, streaming exclusively on Rumble, an online video platform of which he is also one of its largest individual investors.Whether Mr. Bongino will be able to replicate the show’s success — it regularly ranked in the top 3 podcasts on Apple and Spotify throughout 2024 — remains to be seen. “I think it was probably inevitable that his ‘brand’ was going to be damaged by going into government. In a much larger sense that goes beyond today’s MAGA moment, it’s always easier to be a critic outside of government than to go inside government and actually get things done,” co-director of the NYU Center for Social Media and Politics, Joshua Tucker, tells the Sun.FILE – Conservative commentator Dan Bongino speaks at the National Harbor, MD-hosted Conservative Political Action Committee annual. AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File“For any brand, product, or person, it’s always a risk to step away. New fish fill the pond while you’re gone, even if just for a short while,” a University of North Carolina School of Journalism and Media associate professor, Lightning Czabovksy, tells the Sun. One of those “new fish” is Dave Smith, with whom Mr. Bongino recently feuded. Mr. Smiths’ podcast, “Part of the Problem,” in which the podcaster often denounces “the tyranny of the state” as well as Israel, currently ranks number 13 in Spotify’s news podcasts chart.What may – or may not – be helping Mr. Bongino’s case: his feud with Mr. Smith and his frequent blocking of X accounts, both of which continue to generate intense blowback.“That’s the most cuck move,” Mr. Raiklin tells the Sun, using a term for a weak and servile man. “When you block someone, you’re hiding something,” he adds. President Trump denounces CBS News in a conversation with Dan Bongino. RumbleThere have recently been derisive memes of Mr. Bongino and Epstein recreating tender scenes from “Titanic” and “Brokeback Mountain.” Countless accusations of him being a “fraud,” “loser,” and “joke.” Doctored pictures of him wearing clown makeup. There was even a new “Dan Bongino diss track” by rapper and comedian Crack Amico, with verses like “joined the Feds just to protect Epstein’s bros.”On Monday, Mr. Raiklin started a #BonginoBoycott campaign on X.“He tuned us out for a year; we will do the same,” Mr. Raikilin wrote on X. “He is backed into a corner, has appointed himself the MAGA/America First opinion police, and he can’t speak about his work because the substance is lacking,” the host of “The Kyle Seraphin Show” and ex-FBI agent, Kyle Seraphin, tells the Sun. Neither Mr. Bongino, through a Rumble spokesman, nor his show’s producer responded to questions from the Sun.Whatever happens, Ms. Danelishen says the podcast host will continue to have a loyal fanbase.“Dan has millions of followers,” she tells the Sun. “I just won’t be counting myself as one of them.”

Did the FBI Break Dan Bongino’s ‘Free Thinker’ Brand?

More from the New York Sun

Can America End Tehran’s Nuclear Aspirations Without Boots on the Ground?

CBS News Reporter Who Denounced MAGA ‘Lies’ About 2020 Election Quits Over Network’s Balanced January 6 Coverage: Report

Democrats To Introduce Legislation Explicitly Banning Prediction Markets Related to War and Death

More from the New York Sun

Can America End Tehran’s Nuclear Aspirations Without Boots on the Ground?

CBS News Reporter Who Denounced MAGA ‘Lies’ About 2020 Election Quits Over Network’s Balanced January 6 Coverage: Report

Democrats To Introduce Legislation Explicitly Banning Prediction Markets Related to War and Death

‘CNN Is Not a Serious Organization’: Embattled Network Denounced for Sympathetic Coverage of ISIS Terror Suspects

‘Say Nothing’: Gerry Adams, Alleged IRA Commander, Dons Bulletproof Vest, Denies Ordering Bombings That Shook Britain

Apple News Makes Tiny Increase in Conservative Publications Featured on Top Stories List After Pressure from Trump Administration

American Missiles Pulled From South Korea To Buttress Campaign Against Iran

Extracting Enchantment From the Austen and Brontë Production Industries