Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

New FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino has a lot to say about George Soros

Bongino, a vocal supporter of Israel, regularly assails the so-called ‘deep state’ and says Soros is behind it

Dan Bongino, the conservative ex-Fox News host President Trump appointed deputy director of the FBI, has made numerous trips to Israel — and shares a right-wing focus on Jewish liberal philanthropist George Soros.

Bongino, a former Secret Service agent who became one of the country’s most popular right-wing podcasters, will serve under newly confirmed FBI director Kash Patel in a role that has been typically reserved for veterans of the agency. Bongino, like Patel, has downplayed the Jan. 6 insurrection, saying prison sentences for Capitol rioters were “clearly an overreach.”

On his social media accounts and on his nationally syndicated talk show, The Dan Bongino Show, Bongino regularly assails the so-called “deep state” — a theoretical secret network of  government employees working together to thwart official powerholders, the subject of a conspiracy theory since Trump’s first presidency — and often accuses Soros of funding it. He has posted dozens of times about Soros since 2022.

Soros, a billionaire investor whose foundation supports liberal causes, including emerging democracies around the world, is a frequent object of conspiracy theories. The Anti-Defamation League says Soros conspiracy theories are “a gateway to antisemitism.”

Bongino has dismissed this criticism in part by saying, in April 2023, “Whenever they throw out the ‘anti-Semitic’ conspiracy theory it tells you that they’re worried about what Soros is up to. It means double down on your reporting on this major scandal.”

He later added, “Any criticism of me from this point forward will be deemed ‘anti-Christian.’ Not because I believe this, but because our goon media has gone on the record stating these are the new rules. New rules are in effect.”

Bongino’s support of Israel is sometimes couched in explicitly right-wing terms. A few days after the Oct. 7 attack, Bongino wrote, “If the communist media were nearly as concerned with bloodlust Jew hatred, as they are about Islamophobia, the world would be a far different place.”

As second-in-command at an agency focused on domestic crime, Bongino would likely have little influence on foreign policy. But the FBI does have agents in Israel, and collaborates with the Mossad, Shin Bet (Israel’s equivalent of the FBI), and the Israeli National Police.

The FBI has also opened cases involving crimes against Americans by members of Hamas on Oct. 7, eventually leading to terrorism charges against six Hamas leaders, including Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar.

However, the Justice Department is now scrutinizing the FBI teams that backed those charges. The new deputy head of Justice has requested a list of personnel who participated in the Jan. 6 investigation and in the investigation into the Hamas case. A Justice Department official accused the FBI of “resisting efforts to progress” the Hamas investigation.

Bongino’s firm support of Israel and open contempt for pro-Palestinian protesters could also accelerate the FBI’s involvement on American college campuses. Christopher Wray, who served as FBI Director under former President Biden, said last year that the agency did not monitor campus protests, but that it shared information with schools about specific threats of violence. Bongino has blamed Soros for financing the campus protests.

The Justice Department, led by Pam Bondi since earlier this month, is now actively engaged in combatting antisemitism on campus. An executive order signed by President Trump last month directed federal agencies to tell universities to “monitor” and “report activities” by foreign students, staff and faculty related to antisemitism.

A separate White House fact sheet indicated that “immediate action will be taken by the Department of Justice to protect law and order, quell pro-Hamas vandalism and intimidation, and investigate and punish anti-Jewish racism in leftist, anti-American colleges and universities.”

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism so that we can be prepared for whatever news 2025 brings.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:

  • Credit the Forward
  • Retain our pixel
  • Preserve our canonical link in Google search
  • Add a noindex tag in Google search

See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.