OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino is voicing legitimate concerns about former President Donald Trump after Joe Biden’s Justice Department indicted him last week on what many legal analysts believe are dubious, politically motivated charges.
“Hard to talk about, but I’m growing concerned about President Trump’s safety,” Bongino noted in a tweet containing a link to an episode of his weekday talk radio show.
To begin, Bongino said he was motivated to discuss the sensitive subject by reports that indicate “there’s an expectation that Trump may not be here for the election.”
“Having protected both Democrats and Republicans, protectees and presidents, right? I’m telling you, this guy’s in real danger,” said Bongino, who served as a Secret Service agent from 1999, the end of Bill Clinton’s tenure, to 2011, into Barack Obama’s first term.
“You’ve got the Iranian threat out there from his actions against the Iranians,” he said. “The Chinese Communist Party doesn’t like him. They don’t want to see him back in power.”
In addition, there are plenty of Democrats, including the current administration, who appear willing to destroy mores and break rules to tie him up in legal knots or worse.
“There’s a unique witches’ brew of threats for this guy,” Bongino said.
Bongino emphasized that his comments went beyond the juvenile rhetoric of people like comedian Kathy Griffin, who staged a mock decapitation of Trump in 2017, or actor Robert DeNiro, who used phony tough guy talk during the Trump presidency. He also referred to numerous other self-absorbed figures from Hollywood and the left, who made false claims about their readiness to take risks in opposing Trump.
Rather, he is talking about legitimate real-world threats that could include Trump not receiving adequate protection from the current Secret Service, which falls under the Department of Homeland Security.
“My real concern here is, due to the partisan hatred of Donald Trump, that they may be pressured to not give him the security detail he needs … because they don’t want to make him look presidential, or different than the other candidates,” Bongino noted.
He also remarked that the constant and unprecedented trashing and demeaning of the former president since his first run in 2015 could inspire a foreign or domestic threat — or a combination of both — to move against him.
Given Americans’ growing concerns that the Justice Department and FBI have become completely politicized by the left, the Secret Service may be one of the few remaining federal agencies that retains a modicum of trust. But if an attempt on Trump’s life succeeded or came dangerously close, that trust would evaporate as well.
For his part, Trump decried his Thursday indictment by the Justice Department during a campaign-style rally in Georgia Saturday afternoon and pledged that if re-elected, he would end what he described as the “weaponization” of federal law enforcement against certain political figures.
“Our law enforcement has become weaponized at a level never seen before,” Trump, who is currently the front-runner in the race for the GOP presidential nomination, told the Georgia Republican convention in Columbus. “The stakes of this election could not be more stark: Either we have a deep state, or we have a democracy.
“We’re gonna have one or the other, and we’re right at the tipping point. Right now, we’re way leaning toward deep state, but deep state isn’t strong enough. It’s really a communist country and a Marxist country. Deep state’s not strong enough. Deep state, that was a nice term compared to what we’re doing,” he added.
“Either the communists destroy America, or we destroy the communists,” Trump noted further.
Trump is scheduled to make his initial appearance in federal court on Tuesday in Miami. He faces 37 counts related to his handling of classified materials.
