10 things Dan Bongino, Trump's FBI No. 2 pick, has said in the last year

Driving the news: In 2022, Bongino was banned from YouTube after being suspended for violating the platform's COVID-19 misinformation policy.

• He's also spread theories about the FBI's role in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections and questioned the agency's integrity amid investigations into the assassination attempts targeting Trump.
• The FBI and White House did not immediately respond to Axios' requests for comment.

Here are 10 things Bongino has said in the last year.

1. Trump "should ignore" court decisions

Bongino said in a Feb. 11 episode of his podcast, "The Dan Bongino Show," that Trump "should ignore" a demand from a judge to immediately comply with an order to lift his administration's federal spending freeze.

• The firebrand commentator argued the judge had "effectively usurped the power of the executive" branch and was "not acting constitutionally at all."

2. People need to "sacrifice for a little bit" for Trump's policies

Bongino, on the Feb. 18 edition of his show, urged Americans to "sacrifice for a little bit for the long-term prosperity" of the U.S. as Trump implements sweeping policies and staggering cuts within federal agencies.

• "We're all going to take it on the chin a little bit," he said. "Rich guys, poor guys, middle-class guys, someone's going to lose their tax cut."

3. USAID was "used to infiltrate governments"

Amid the DOGE-driven dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Bongino argued the world's largest humanitarian aid organization was "not an aid agency."

• USAID is "about deep state pockets of money used to infiltrate governments, NGOs, and other places for an anti-American censorship agenda," he said on Feb. 4, characterizing the agency as "probably the single greatest slush fund for the deep state you've ever seen."

4. Trump could investigate "special tyrant" Jack Smith

On a Jan. 23 episode, he said he would "have no problem with Donald Trump investigating Jack Smith," the special prosecutor who led the two federal criminal cases against Trump.

• Bongino described Smith, who resigned ahead of Trump's inauguration, as "the special tyrant investigating Donald Trump for a fake crime he made up for a fake insurrection."

5. Don't trust the FBI or DOJ

After the Justice Department announced in September that the Kremlin had backed a widespread election interference scheme, Bongino urged his followers to "Trust absolutely NOTHING emanating from the DOJ or FBI that even remotely whiffs of politics."

• He said in January that the FBI is now "an exclusively political organization" — a dynamic he said will change under Patel's leadership.

6. FBI has been hiding "a massive fake assassination plot"

In a Jan. 7 episode of his show, Bongino accused the FBI of "hiding a massive fake assassination plot to shut down the questioning of the 2020 election" that'd "come out the second Kash gets sworn in."

• Bongino said no one has focused on the "untold story" of Jan. 6 more than him.

He argued the "January 6 bomber," a reference to the suspect who placed pipe bombs near the Republican and Democratic national committees' headquarters on the eve of the riot, is a "freaking insider."

• Bongino contended that recently released footage from the FBI of the alleged perpetrator was doctored to obscure the person's identity.

7. DEI is a "cancerous curse"

In an episode posted after a tragic midair collision last month near Reagan National Airport killed 67 people, Bongino decried diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives as "racist" and "a cancer."

• Trump and several of his allies baselessly blamed the crash on DEI.
• "DEI is a cancerous curse," Bongino said, adding he was "glad" Trump brought it up during his press conference about the crash.

8. The left wants to "destroy our boys"

Applauding Vice President JD Vance's appeal to young men during his CPAC remarks, Bongino said in a Tuesday episode that the left wants to "destroy the idea of strong, masculine men" and wants "your values coming from the state."

• He continued, "They want everybody weak and compliant, and the best way to do it is to destroy our boys."

9. Zelensky could have prevented "a lot of drama" by defending Trump during impeachment

As tensions between the U.S. and Ukraine peak, Bongino said the suggestion that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's "hands are clean in what's been a global attack on populism and Donald Trump is ridiculous."

• He claimed Zelensky could "have saved the United States a lot of drama" by "defending Donald Trump vigorously and loudly" during his 2019 impeachment.
• He added that Trump is "suspicious" of Zelensky because of what Bongino said Zelensky did to "sweep under the rug the Joe Biden madness."

Flashback: Trump's first impeachment was for withholding aid to Ukraine as leverage to pressure Zelensky to announce an investigation into Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.

• Zelensky said at the time that he did not feel pressured.

10. After Trump's conviction: "Laugh now motherf-----s, you'll be crying soon"

Bongino, in a profanity-laced Truth Social post shared after Trump was found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records last May, warned "Liberal Commie F---wads" that "we'll be drinking your delicious tears in November."

• "Laugh now motherf-----s, you'll be crying soon," he wrote. "Bank on it."

Go deeper: What to know about Dan Bongino, new FBI deputy director