Bongino pushed the conspiracy theory that the Trump campaign was being spied on, a situation he dubbed “spygate” and called “the biggest scandal in American history.”
During one show, discussing the pushback against the nomination of Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh, Bongino said, “My entire life right now is about owning the libs. That’s it. The libs … have shown themselves through this Kavanaugh abomination of a process to be … pure unadulterated evil.”
His robust defense of Trump caught the attention of producers at Fox, who booked him hundreds of times during this period, and it appears to be at this point that Trump first took notice of Bongino.
In June 2018, Trump quoted Bongino in two posts on Twitter after Bongino appeared on Fox & Friends slamming then CIA director John Brennan.
Bongino connected with Trump, the Daily Beast reported in October 2018, writing that Trump spoke to his aides about “malicious influences inside the FBI,” citing Bongino as the source of his information.
Bongino’s NRATV show lasted less than a year, and in December 2018 when it was announced his show was ending, Bongino reacted to critics saying he had been fired and poking fun at his demise.
A month later, Fox News signed Bongino as a contributor, despite the fact that he had been reportedly barred from the set of Shannon Bream’s show on the station for becoming “unglued” during a recording.
In 2021, Bongino became a Fox News host, with a Saturday night show called Unfiltered, which he used to become one of the loudest voices pushing election-denial conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. He also used the platform to push the great replacement conspiracy theory and Covid-19 conspiracy theories. Bongino regularly railed against what he considered to be government overreach in relation to mask and vaccine mandates.
During the attack on the Capitol, Bongino was temporarily suspended from Twitter for posting a video originally shared by Trump, and in the days after the attack he raged about the decision to remove the messaging app Parler, in which he was an investor, from app stores.
In 2022, YouTube finally took action against Bongino, who used to post his podcast on the platform, permanently banning him for spreading Covid-19 disinformation. However Facebook continued to allow him to use its platform, where he had built up a massive audience, to promote his conspiracy theories.
Bongino left Fox News in 2023, but he has continued to grow his podcast on the alternative video streaming site Rumble, to which Vice President JD Vance has ties and in which he is an investor.
While Bongino has not been as vocal a supporter of the QAnon conspiracy theory as his boss, he has boosted QAnon figures in the past, and his supporters on pro-Trump and conspiracy channels have been cheering his new role. These supporters claim that he and Patel will finally unmask the “deep state”—a supposed group of government officials they believe have been waging a secret war on Trump.
“Trump has brought together the dream team, the Avengers,” one prominent QAnon promoter wrote. “Get your popcorn ready.”
Update 2/24/25 5:53pm ET: This story has been updated with additional information about the FBI Agents Association’s view of the Bongino appointment.
