Kash Patel Gets a Hatchet Man At the FBI

Old and busted, FBI execs edition: Save us from Kash Patel, Pam Bondi! New hotness: Save us from Dan Bongino, Kash Patel! 

If anyone doubted how Donald Trump sees the Federal Bureau of Investigation, wonder no longer:

President Trump announced he had named conservative commentator and former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino as deputy director of the FBI, putting a political appointee, rather than a career agent, in the No. 2 job for the first time in the bureau’s 117 year history.

“Great news for Law Enforcement and American Justice!” Trump posted Sunday night on his Truth Social platform, calling Bongino “a man of incredible love and passion for our Country.”

Bongino’s background is strikingly different from that of his predecessors. He is a former Secret Service agent and New York Police Department officer who has never worked for the FBI, a first for the holder of the deputy role. The post is responsible for overseeing the bureau’s day-to-day enforcement operations.

Patel had already promised to select his #2 from the rank-and-file, in part to adhere to tradition but more to bolster confidence in his outsider leadership. This intervention by Trump sends a very clear message that he wants to clear the decks at the FBI, and the rank and file had better get ready for it. This is not just a DOGE deadwood-clearing exercise; Trump means to wring all of the political chicanery out of the FBI, and to do it toute suite.

Bongino has enough qualifications to justify the pick. As Trump noted in his Truth Social post last night:

Dan has a Masters Degree in Psychology from C.U.N.Y., and an MBA from Penn State. He was a member of the New York Police Department (New York’s Finest!), a highly respected Special Agent with the United States Secret Service, and is now one of the most successful Podcasters in the Country, something he is willing and prepared to give up in order to serve.

However, it’s still a bit curious. First, I assumed Bongino might be up for Secret Service director, where his experience fits better. When Trump named Sean Curran — his detail chief for the past few years — to run the Secret Service, I had assumed that Bongino might not have been interested in joining the administration. Taking over as a #2 at a completely different agency seems odd for someone who has built a highly successful media career as an owner/operator.

The fit at Secret Service would have been self-explaining, but seems a little less apt at the FBI. The benefit of having a rank-and-file agent in that position is that such an appointment will help connect the new Director to the everyday realities at the bureau as well as maintain operational status quo and equilibrium. Clearly ‘operational status quo and equilibrium’ are not what Trump has in mind, however, and that’s why an outsider like Bongino makes sense. I’ve had the pleasure of chatting a few times with Bongino, and he’s sharp and intense. He doesn’t take on assignments without fully incorporating them into his life, which is one of the qualities that made him so successful on air. Bongino isn’t dropping his successful and lucrative career just to push papers and gladhand the troops. He’s signing up to be Patel’s hatchet man.

So let’s hit the positiives. The appointment allows Patel to rise above some of the clear-cutting that will have to take place at the FBI, especially in executive positions, and buffer him from the inevitable backlash. Given Trump’s mistake in the first term of trusting the insiders a little too much, it also helps Patel focus on Trump’s main policy to excise the politicized incumbents rather than just get them to play along. Patel doesn’t seem to be a “just play along” kind of guy, but in that sense, Bongino will be Trump’s insurance policy. 

Also, the position does have something in common with the US Secret Service Director — neither require Senate confirmation, or at least haven’t until now. Only the FBI Director requires a confirmation vote, which means Bongino can take office immediately. Why is that important? Bongino has not been shy about ripping Republicans as well as Democrats in the Senate over the years, which might make a confirmation process a wee bit uncomfortable. I often joke that I’d probably get three votes for confirmation if ever nominated for a position that requires it, and I’m nowhere near as intense as Bongino. 

And the last ‘positive’: it will be fun to watch, at least for a while. We do need an FBI that focuses on law enforcement rather than conducting dawn raids on pro-life families or gin up domestic-terror profiles on parents calling school boards to account (to use only two examples of politicization), and there are plenty of outstanding agents of integrity who want the FBI to return to their mission. The trick will be to get rid of the others without pushing out those who truly contribute, and balancing reform zeal with organizational wisdom. Let’s hope both Patel and Bongino are up to that task.