Donald Trump didn’t even have to leave his building for an interview that streamed live on his friend and loyal supporter Dan Bongino’s video podcast Friday morning. But he still had trouble making it to the end of what may have been planned as a longer sit-down.
After vamping for more than 30 minutes in Trump Tower as he waited for the ex-president to show up, Bongino began by boasting to the president about the “super, extra MAGA” crowd that tunes into his show. “We’re like the darkest MAGA of all,” Bongino said in an attempt to out-do Elon Musk.
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At one point in the low-energy interview, Trump offered up insights such as how “amazed” he was that “king of woke” Harvey Weinstein got “schlonged.” But it was his final moment with Bongino that caught the eye of Kamala Harris’ social media team.
“Trump abruptly ends his live interview after it is reported that he is canceling interviews because he is ‘exhausted,’” @KamalaHQ tweeted, referring to a new report from Politico that the Republican candidate is “exhausted and refusing interviews” with less than three weeks to go until Election Day.
After about half an hour, as Bongino tried to ask another question, Trump said, “Hey, Dan, off the record, I gotta get going,” seeming not to realize the interview was airing live.
Bongino apologized to both Trump and his viewers for the abrupt end to the interview and let his guest go, but not before making him sign a baseball that he said he planned to auction off for charity.
“Pretty good, just like the old days,” Trump said from his chair as Bongino stood up and admired the signature.
Then, shortly after this article was published, Bongino sent the Daily Beast what he described as “receipts” showing Trump did not end the interview early (along with the charming note, “Does your mother tell her friends she has no living children out of embarrassment for having spawned such an embarrassing piece of s--t?”)
But in the screenshot of an email in which Trump’s team confirmed the interview, it clearly shows it was meant to be an hour long. Instead of staying for the full time he agreed to be live with Bongino and pushing back his next event, Trump ended the sit-down after a little more than 30 minutes.
Bongino is a former NYPD officer and Secret Service agent with three failed congressional bids under his belt. He rose to prominence as a conservative pundit on Fox News during Trump’s first term as president. He very briefly had his own show on the network before “parting ways” with the company in 2023. (His 2018 departure from NRATV prompted a failed defamation suit against the Daily Beast.)
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Bongino became one of the loudest voices against mask and vaccine mandates, which ultimately led to a permanent ban from YouTube in 2022. He currently hosts The Dan Bongino Show on the conservative platform Rumble.
