Dan Bongino became one of the most trusted voices in conservative media by exposing FBI corruption.
Donald Trump rewarded that loyalty by making him the number two official at the Bureau.
And Megyn Kelly spoke one fact about Dan Bongino's FBI career that left everyone stunned.
Bongino steps down after leftists made his job impossible
Dan Bongino announced he's stepping down as FBI Deputy Director effective early January after less than a year in the role.
The conservative commentator gave up his thriving podcast empire to serve alongside FBI Director Kash Patel in what Trump supporters hoped would be a complete overhaul of the scandal-plagued agency.
Both men spent years as fierce critics of the Bureau's weaponization against conservatives before Trump tapped them to clean house.
But Megyn Kelly just revealed why their mission was doomed from the start.
"Neither one of them fully appreciated the fact that these organizations are completely replete with leftists," Kelly explained during a recent podcast with journalist Glenn Greenwald. "And it's very freaking hard to change the culture."¹
There it is. The entire FBI is rotted from within by thousands of leftist bureaucrats who hate Trump and everything he stands for.
Bongino and Patel walked into a building full of Deep State operatives who spent every day undermining their reforms.
The personal cost of fighting an unwinnable war
Bongino didn't quit because the work was hard. He left because the work was impossible.
During a Fox News appearance earlier this year, Bongino opened up about what serving his country actually cost him.
"I gave up everything for this," Bongino said. "My wife is struggling. Kash gets in like six o'clock in the morning. He doesn't leave till seven at night. I'm in there at seven thirty. I stare at these four walls all day in D.C. by myself, separated from my wife. It's hard."²
Left-wing media jackals like MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace mocked him for it.
She called Bongino "a freaking joke" for daring to mention the sacrifice involved in taking on the FBI's entrenched bureaucracy.
That tells you everything you need to know about why the left wanted Bongino gone. He was actually trying to let agents be cops again instead of political enforcers for the Democrat Party.
Kelly defended Bongino against the attacks.
"There's a thankless job where he's losing support even amongst some MAGA faithful because of the nature of the FBI," Kelly said.³
The Epstein file debacle destroyed Bongino and Patel's credibility with part of the conservative base through no fault of their own.
Both men had criticized the official Epstein cover-up for years. But when Attorney General Pam Bondi blocked additional file releases to protect powerful Democrats, Bongino and Patel took the heat.
"She's their boss," Kelly pointed out. "If Pam Bondi directs the strategy that we're not releasing anything more on Epstein's file, then that is what Kash and Dan had to do."⁴
So Bongino got attacked from the left for trying to reform the FBI and attacked from some on the right for decisions that weren't his to make. All while career leftists inside the Bureau sabotaged him at every turn.
Why the FBI can't be fixed
Bongino did score one massive victory before stepping down.
The FBI finally captured the January 6th pipe bomber after the case sat cold for nearly four years under Christopher Wray's leadership.
Kelly credited Bongino with making the arrest happen by forcing agents to actually work the case instead of continuing their witch hunt against Trump supporters.
But one arrest can't fix an agency with 35,000 employees when most of them are protected by civil service rules and union contracts that make firing them virtually impossible.
Trump supporters are finally waking up to this reality.
"The idea that Dan Bongino and Kash Patel aren't doing the best they can is laughably absurd," podcaster Tim Pool wrote on X.⁵
Commentator Mike Cernovich responded with the hard truth nobody wants to hear.
"Yes, which is why the FBI must be disbanded," Cernovich wrote. "Not even Bongino and Kash could reform it. If a Democrat wins in 2028 and is back in control of the Director appointment, everyone is f***ed."⁶
He's right. Bongino and Patel are two of the most competent, dedicated Trump loyalists in government. If they can't clean up the FBI, nobody can.
The problem isn't the people Trump appointed. The problem is a federal workforce deliberately designed to resist accountability and protect employees who despise the American people.
Bongino needed to fire thousands of leftist agents and start over with patriots who believe in the Constitution. Civil service protections made that impossible.
So after months of banging his head against that wall while Democrats and their media allies attacked him nonstop, Bongino decided he'd rather go back to his podcast where he can actually make a difference.
You can't blame him for that. He gave it everything he had. The system beat him because the system was built to protect itself from reformers like Dan Bongino.
¹ Megyn Kelly, "Bongino Resignation Shows 'It's Very Freaking Hard To Change The Culture' At The FBI," RealClearPolitics, December 18, 2025.
² Ibid.
³ Ibid.
⁴ Ibid.
⁵ Tim Pool, X post, December 18, 2025.
⁶ Mike Cernovich, X post, December 18, 2025.
