The Dan Bongino Show
The Dan Bongino Show

Where's The Money Coming From?

August 24, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

Where's The Money Coming From?

A surprising detail opened this episode: Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna is rolling out the Foreign Propaganda Registration Act, an amendment to FARA that would require influencers to disclose when foreign governments pay them to push political messaging. Luna told Playbook she's seen contracts "into the millions" and that a large portion of the influencer ecosystem has been approached to push positions tied to foreign countries. Dan Bongino used this as his entry point into a broader argument about what he calls the "new Trump resistance" — a network of doomers, grifters, and foreign-influence operations trying to undermine the Trump administration's record heading into the midterms.

The Foreign Money Playbook

Bongino argued that the pattern is consistent: these influence campaigns follow the same playbook every time. They put out interviews with doomers claiming "nothing happened," they push narratives that everyone in the Trump administration "sucks," and when someone fights back, they "cry and whine and claim victim." He pointed to his own experience as the first big name to exit the Trump administration, saying he became the "tip of the spear" for these efforts because his record — crime getting crushed, public corruption cases, the BLM and TPS PLC cases — made him a threat to their preferred 2028 candidates.

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What you'll learn

  • 1 (02:31) **Follow the Money: Foreign Influence on Influencers** - Bongino warns listeners that many online influencers pushing anti-Trump messages are being secretly paid by foreign governments.
  • 2 (07:47) **The "Crash Out" Explained: Why the Attacks Are Escalating** - Bongino explains that the constant online attacks against him are a direct result of the primary season ending with the defeat of "doomer" and "grifter" candidates.
  • 3 (10:31) **The New Trump Resistance vs. The Old Trump Resistance** - Bongino draws a parallel between the current "doomer" influencers and the failed "Trump resistance" movement from the first term.
  • 4 (14:58) **The Two-Step Election Winning Strategy** - Bongino lays out a simple two-part message for winning elections: tell people what you did and warn them about what the other side will do.
  • 5 (15:57) **Bringing the Receipts: Trump's Record** - Bongino plays a clip of President Trump on Air Force One listing his administration's accomplishments, including the largest tax refunds in history and the biggest violent crime drop in 90 years.
  • 6 (20:57) **Media Gaslighting: The "Alcohol" Theory of Crime Reduction** - Bongino critiques an Axios article that attributes the drop in violent crime to factors like alcohol consumption and a return to routine, rather than Trump administration policies.
  • 7 (25:08) **It's Okay to Be Proud of Your Country Again** - Bongino highlights the successful "Freedom 250" IndyCar race in Washington, D.C., as a small but important symbol of national pride.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Guests on this episode

Show Notes

In this episode, I'll expose the money trail that may lead back to some familiar

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Luna’s influence operation

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2026/08/24/lunas-influence-operation-01046933


Alcohol, AI and aging: Theories on why violent crime is down

https://www.axios.com/2026/08/24/violent-crime-decline-theories


Enes Kanter Freedom escorted out of Fever-Sky game after ugly exchange with WNBA star Natasha Cloud

https://nypost.com/2026/08/23/sports/enes-kanter-freedom-escorted-out-of-wnba-game-after-exchange-with-natasha-cloud/


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