Former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino has issued a serious warning about the safety of former President Donald Trump, one that carries particular weight given Bongino’s decade-long experience protecting U.S. presidents from both parties. His concern is not rooted in partisan politics or speculation, but in professional threat assessment. Bongino argues that Trump is currently facing an unusually dangerous convergence of risks at a time when institutional trust, restraint, and security culture appear strained. Despite the gravity of this assessment, his warning has received relatively little attention amid media focus on legal and political controversies.
Bongino identifies several overlapping threat streams. On the international level, Trump remains a high-value target for hostile foreign actors, particularly Iran, following the 2020 strike that killed General Qassem Soleimani. Iranian officials have publicly vowed retaliation, and U.S. intelligence agencies have acknowledged ongoing threats against American officials tied to that decision. Bongino also notes that China has clear strategic motives to oppose Trump’s return to power, given his confrontational stance on trade, technology, and geopolitics. Foreign adversaries, he emphasizes, require neither public support nor mass movements—only opportunity and vulnerability.
Domestically, Bongino highlights a volatile climate shaped by years of dehumanizing rhetoric. While much of this language is dismissed as political theater, threat assessment research shows that sustained vilification increases the risk of lone-wolf violence by unstable individuals. Bongino does not accuse public figures of intent, but stresses that cumulative rhetoric can function as implicit permission for violence.
Most troubling, he raises concerns about politicization within protective institutions themselves. Bongino warns that resentment, optics, or partisan pressure could subtly influence security decisions, reducing visibility or aggressiveness of protection. History shows that major protection failures often stem not from lack of intelligence, but from compromised judgment driven by image or convenience.
Ultimately, Bongino’s warning is not just about Trump. The protection of former presidents is a national security obligation. If political hostility can weaken protective standards, it sets a dangerous precedent for every future leader. History consistently shows that warnings ignored before tragedy are always taken seriously afterward.
