FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino has criticized The New York Times for a recent article that claimed President Trump politicized the FBI, making Americans less safe. Firing back with a lengthy post on social media, Bongino countered with data, highlighting the FBI’s success under Trump.
For context, Bongino drew attention to a record-low murder rate, over 14,000 violent criminal arrests, and the capture of 800 child predators. The former podcaster mentioned that the FBI seized 22% more illicit drugs and deported 18,000 illegal immigrants. Bongino slammed the Times for failing to mention these victories in their “poorly thought-out hit piece.”
In any case, the NYT article began with a series of dubious claims, such as saying, “Mr. Trump’s playbook for the FBI is plain to see. He is turning it into an enforcement agency for MAGA’s priorities. Mr. Trump’s politicization of the FBI has left it less able to combat terrorism, foreign espionage, biosecurity threats, organized crime, online scams, white-collar crime, drug trafficking and more.”
Reacting to the vile hit piece in a July 5, 2025, post to X, Bongino announced, “This NY Times article is precisely why hard-working Americans simply do not trust the media. The article is a poorly thought out hit piece which attempts to address the dramatic personnel changes we’ve made, along with the enterprise-wide reorganization Director Patel and I have undertaken.”
Still not done, he added, “But the conclusion of the piece is so ridiculous that a child could debunk it. The authors comically assert that you are ‘less safe’ because Kash and I have aggressively reformed the FBI. Yet, they produce NO evidence whatsoever to backup that claim. And the reason they don’t produced any evidence, is because the numbers tell the opposite story.”
Digging into the details, he revealed, “Our violent crime initiative, dubbed “Summer Heat,” and other initiatives around the country have the murder rate trending to be the lowest in U.S. history by a longshot. Summer Heat is coming to a city or town near you soon as we assist your community in removing criminal predators from the streets.”
Providing another example, Bongino stated, “Our emphasis on violent crime has led to the arrests of 14,000 violent criminals. This is a 62% increase from the same time period last year. We rescued over one hundred children from being preyed on, while arresting over 825 violent child predators, and 140 human traffickers,” adding, “Our agents locked up 51 foreign intelligence operatives for spying and smuggling dangerous substances into our country.”
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Bongino wrote, Explaining the FBI’s decisive action on illegal immigration, the FBI Director stated, “In conjunction with our federal partners, we apprehended, imprisoned, and deported over 18,000 illegal aliens. Many of these illegal aliens had violent criminal histories. As a result, last month, again, ZERO illegals were admitted into our country. The same partners arrested nearly 800 rioters for attempting to stop enforcement operations.”
Concluding the epic rebuttal, Bongino said, “Notice how The NY Times omitted these data points to tell you “a story,” not the story. And, even though it’s an opinion piece, they should at least attempt to insert reality into it. God bless America, and all those who defend Her.”
Featured image credit: By Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=55653121