Things got messy between two right-wing figures whose time in the Trump administration was short-lived.
Recently resigned Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino and Matt Gaetz, the disgraced ex-lawmaker whose U.S. Attorney General nomination by President Donald Trump was withdrawn amid a sex scandal after the 2024 election, exchanged insults on Tuesday morning.
Gaetz, 43, fired the first shot after Bongino re-emerged on social media for the first time since leaving the FBI. The former congressman tagged the AI bot Grok on X and asked, “When did Dan Bongino run for office and how did he perform as a candidate?”
Grok answered with details about Bongino’s trio of failed Congressional runs—twice in Maryland, and once in Florida.
That clearly struck a nerve with the 51-year-old former Secret Service agent, who fired back at Gaetz two hours later.
“Maybe if I spent more time at shady parties with monied insiders, I would’ve won,” he wrote. “I heard you’d know a bit about that. You’ve always been a d--k, by the way. Grifting off your daddy like a suckling little doggie. When I first met you in the Panhandle, I knew you were a piece of s--t. It’s written all over that phony face of yours.”
Ouch.
Bongino’s post quickly racked up more than 10,000 likes, while Gaetz’s question received about a thousand by the early afternoon. However, the beef did not stop there.
Gaetz typed up a lengthy, snarky response to Bongino.
“I’m glad you remember meeting me so many years ago,” he wrote. “I recall you gave a moving speech about your time in law enforcement. I told you I liked it.”
Gaetz continued, referencing his Florida politician dad, “I’m deeply proud of my father. We make a great team. Are you saying having a successful father is a bad thing? Did you share that viewpoint with President Trump? Or Don Jr? I share your distain (sic) for monied insiders. It’s why I was the ONLY Republican in Congress who refused lobbyist and PAC donations.
“Why are you angry at me? Because you don’t like my face? This is your big white pill message against the doomers? That I have a bad face? You made a post about being a candidate for office during the Tea Party movement, and twice thereafter. I didn’t know that full history, so I simply asked @grok if you had won any of those elections. Apparently, you underperformed as a political candidate. But you’re a world-class streamer. Cool.”
Gaetz concluded his post by writing, “Take a chill pill, Dan,” and linking to a website that sells Ivermectin. Gaetz offered a discount code for the site, which features a headshot of him.
Bongino then resorted to indirect digs, resharing a post that read, “Q: What’s the difference between Matt Gaetz and a bag of dogs--t? A: The bag!”
Both men likely have more time on their hands this January than in previous years. Gaetz, accused of paying for sex with an underage girl when he was an elected official, abruptly retired from Congress in November 2024 despite winning re-election the month prior.
Gaetz now hosts a show on the far-right One America News Network and offers Cameo videos for $200—half the price that a teenage girl says Gaetz paid her to sleep with him in 2017. Gaetz has denied this accusation.
Bongingo, who clashed with others in the administration over the handling of the Epstein files, announced his resignation last month. President Donald Trump praised Bongino when asked about his exit, and said that the former Fox News host wanted to return to producing his own show. Insiders have described Bongino as the “fall guy” for the administration regarding the Epstein files.
