The real takeaway from the Epstein kerfuffle is about how eager Trump is to ‘keep the band together.’
The Corner has suffered in recent weeks from an appalling lack of Dan Bongino content; I am here to remedy the situation. For those unaware — and I mentioned this story in this week’s Carnival of Fools — the deputy director of the FBI apparently had a meeting for the ages last Wednesday at the Justice Department, one where he barked at Attorney General Pam Bondi and threatened to quit his job unless she quit hers.
A bold threat indeed — especially from a man who holds an appointed (rather than confirmed) position in Trump’s cabinet and is therefore clearly the replaceable cog in the machine. This all stems from the fallout of Bondi’s sheepish announcement that “Phase I” of the Epstein files, rolled out with such anticlimactic hilarity to handpicked MAGA influencers back in late February, was actually “Phase the Last” — and that the DOJ was officially closing the book on Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide once and for all. No “client list” would be forthcoming. In fact — oops! — Bondi misspoke when she promised the world several months ago that any such “client list” was “sitting on my desk waiting for review.”
The most online and conspiratorially driven quarters of MAGA obviously spit the bit at this, and Bongino — as a former populist talk radio host with hopes of returning to that gig someday — was feeling the heat from his former listener base. Bongino accused Bondi of making them all look like clowns, while Bondi in turn apparently accused Bongino of leaking to the press. In the words of the old journalistic euphemism, it was an extremely frank exchange of opinions.
Immediately afterward, the Daily Wire’s White House reporter caught a hot scoop. First: “Source close to Dan Bongino tells me it’s either him or Pam Bondi, and that he won’t stay at FBI if she stays at DOJ.” Second, mere minutes later: “MORE: Source close to DOJ says Kash Patel also wants Pam Bondi gone, and that he’d consider leaving if Bongino leaves. Also that there are more frustrations with other documents Bondi hasn’t released.”
Since nobody can know for sure except those directly involved, I’ll just gently suggest that Pam Bondi might have been on to something when she began hurling leak accusations. (Perhaps the Daily Wire’s source was well-known DOJ insider “Donna Bingo.”) Patel himself later clarified that he had no intention of stepping down as FBI director, and Trump moved both publicly (on Truth Social) and privately to squelch further internal ructions. CNN has a handy summary of the state of events:
As of Monday morning, no one in leadership at the Justice Department had spoken to Bongino since Wednesday, when he implied that he could no longer continue in his position as long as Bondi was there, sources familiar with the matter said.
The threat infuriated Trump, who spent the weekend fuming over both Bongino and FBI Director Kash Patel, sources told CNN. Most of his fury was directed at Bongino, causing aides to expect that the deputy director would depart his job in the coming days. But Vice President JD Vance spent the weekend attempting to mediate, at times fielding calls from Patel, Bongino and Bondi, sources said.
It remains to be seen if Bongino ultimately resigns, which he told others he was considering. But sources say his relationship with the White House has become basically untenable. Even if he does not quit now, some inside the administration believe he will not stay in the job long-term.
That brings us to my favorite part of this entire affair, where Bongino yesterday cribbed a glorious page from George Costanza’s personal playbook and slunk his way quietly back into the office, deciding that maybe he wasn’t going to quit after all. There he remains, at present — a figurehead who has declared war upon his nominal superior in Bondi, enraged his true boss in Trump, and done all of this from a position of zero internal leverage. (If it’s any consolation, Bongino was always a figurehead — he received his appointment because Trump liked him as a MAGA radio host, not because of his law-enforcement expertise.) Bongino has burned his administration bridges — particularly by dragging Patel into the whole mess — and it remains to be seen how long he will remain in his position. But better to leave a month or two from now, when the Epstein fires have died down, than in a huff, and in bad odor with Trump and the “official MAGA” movement.
The question, of course, is: Will those fires die down? The conspiracy theorists of the world insist not. Tucker Carlson just announced that Darryl Cooper — the crank historian of “Churchill and the Jews are the villains of WWII” notoriety — is returning to his podcast on Thursday to reveal the “true history” of the Jeffrey Epstein case to the world. (Wonder who they’ll blame?) Trump and his administration are determined to move on, however, and given the natural force of his political gravity, I have to assume that by this time next week we will all be talking about something else.
Trump sure isn’t doing himself any favors, though! The president of the United States, when queried about the Epstein files this morning, had this to offer:
I would say these files were made up by Comey, they were made up by Obama, they were made up by B—the Biden inf-, uh, muh, you know, uh, and we went through years of that with Russia, Russia Russia hoax.
Gosh, I dunno. It sounds an awful lot like the comparison he’s drawing there is to his own name’s presence in the Steele Dossier — the infamous Russiagate hoax. And that is quite possibly the single most unfortunate analogy Trump could have randomly grasped for as a comparison. But it’s probably just that — an unfortunate analogy, and nothing more.
The real takeaway from the Epstein kerfuffle for me is about how eager Trump is to “keep the band together” during what — and this quietly amazes me, as a professional commentator — is still only his first half year in office. Trump cares about tamping down on internal discontents that threaten to divide his coalition, which in all honesty exhibits more conscientiousness than I would have expected from him in his present position, given that he’ll never run another race. But the pattern is clear: Instead of going to war hammer-and-tongs with Elon Musk, as first-term Trump might have, he has sought to placate him, remain judiciously silent, and accept an uneasy détente with his former DOGE-man star. Instead of wading hip-deep into the Epstein mess and taking sides, Trump realizes he can’t replace most of these people right now and thus needs them to at least pretend to get along.
At some point, Bongino is likely to go. (He can be easily replaced, and unlike those who are currently exercising real power — Patel, Bondi, etc. — he has more to gain both reputationally and financially in the private sector than he does from continued association with a Trump administration he has to answer for.) But for now, the true story of the entire “Epstein files” mess isn’t about Jeffrey Epstein, “pedophile island,” or any of the mad conspiracy theories floating around the man and his death. The story to pay attention to, rather, is how Donald Trump has managed to hold a rambunctiously explosive coalition (composed of free radicals like the Epstein conspiracy theorists, but not at all confined to them) together, through sheer force of personal will.