OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Former President Donald Trump recently spoke to conservative Dan Bongino about what his “mission number one” will be if he wins the 2024 presidential election.
During an interview on “The Dan Bongino Show,” Bongino argued that “the two most important places to start” would have to be the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. If federal employees at the DOJ or FBI “cannot pledge allegiance to the Constitution and insist on pledging allegiance to a political party first and the American people second,” said Bongino, “then [they] have to go.”
Bongino said he believed Trump “can win in November 2024. Mission Number One: a thorough and complete disinfecting of [the] fetid [and] putrid D.C. Swamp.”
Referring to an Axios article, Bongino listened as Trump recounted how his plans and actions were often obstructed by individuals in his previous administration. Trump said that instead of defying him overtly, they would “slow-walk things” that he asked for or to be done.
They won’t say, ‘no.’ They’ll never say, ‘no.’ They’ll slow-walk; they’ll say, ‘oh yes sir, we’ll get this done.’ And then all of a sudden you’ll say, ‘where are those papers?’ [And they answer], ‘oh, we’re working on them hard.’ You have people that you would least suspect [doing this]. [It’s D.C.] It’s a crazy place,” Trump said.
“The most important thing is personnel because…I had great people, but I also had some bad ones. You know, you take recommendations [and] I was in Washington very little during the course of my life…but you know I was in Washington very little and I was taking recommendations of people that in some cases were RINOs — and RINOs that you didn’t know were RINOs. Or people that I wouldn’t have agreed politically with certain things, but was taking recommendations from people that I knew in Washington — that maybe I respected, but maybe, in the end, didn’t — and you put some of those people in and they didn’t do the job,” Trump added.
Last week, Bongino, a former U.S. Secret Service agent, voiced concerns about Trump after Biden’s Justice Department indicted him 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 also spoke 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.
For his part, Trump decried the 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.
