by Sharon Rondeau
(Feb. 2, 2026) — While a guest on official relaunch of “The Dan Bongino Show” late Monday morning, President Donald Trump said he “won the state [of Minnesota] three times,” referencing each of his presidential elections.
The segment begins at the 1:25:01 mark.
The first topic was the falling crime level in which Bongino recalled participating as FBI deputy director, a post he held from mid-March 2025 to early January 2026.
Crime went down “80%,” Trump said, in New Orleans after Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry asked the administration for federal assistance in that troubled city.
Unlike state or local governments, the federal government, Trump said, can not only arrest, but also remove criminal illegal aliens from the country.
He invoked recent apprehensions in Minnesota of criminal illegal aliens by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and significant financial fraud discovered largely within the Minneapolis Somali community which he said exceeds $19 billion.
At 1:33:38, he shifted quickly to Minnesota’s criminal illegal-alien population and the lack of local cooperation with removing them, then made the claim he “won the state three times,” signifying the presidential elections of 2016, 2020 and 2024.
Regarding the “millions and millions” of illegals who crossed the border during the Biden years, Trump said, “If Republicans don’t get ’em out, you will never win another election as a Republican,” claiming many illegals vote in America’s elections.
“These people were brought to our country to vote,” he said, “…and it’s amazing that the Republicans aren’t tougher on them…”
“The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting,” he said at 11:45. As far as 2020, he said, “I won that election by so much..,” then promised “you’ll see it.”
The 2020 Election and Tina Peters
Without invoking her name, he decried the incarceration of former Mesa County, CO election clerk Tina Peters, 70, stating “she probably has cancer” and was unjustly jailed for having reported the ballot fraud she said she discovered following the 2020 election.
Peters was sentenced to 8.5 years in state prison and another six months in county jail, the latter for “felony conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation related to her involvement in a 2021 election security breach,” which Peters’s legal team has appealed.
“During last week’s Colorado Court of Appeals hearing,” KUSA-TV reported January 26, “judges questioned whether the indictment and the jury instructions described the misdemeanor and not the felony charge.”
“The misdemeanor statute did not exist at the time of the crime,” the outlet continued. “Peters’ attorneys argued during the appeal that the language in the indictment and jury instructions described a misdemeanor, not a felony. The charge involved Peters obtaining an identification badge for Gerald Wood, then allowing someone else to use that badge to access Mesa County’s election equipment between May 23 and May 27, 2021.”
At her sentencing, Judge Matthew Barrett excoriated Peters with, “You are no hero. You abused your position – and you’re a charlatan who used, and is still using your prior position to peddle a snake oil that’s been proven to be junk time and time again. Your lies are well-documented and these convictions are serious. I’m convinced you’d do it all over again if you could. You’re as defiant as a defendant as this court has ever seen.”
Peters is currently at the La Vista Correctional Facility in Pueblo. She was involved in an incident with another female prisoner on January 18 which is reportedly under investigation.
On December 5, 2025, Trump issued a “full and unconditional pardon” to Peters spanning January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2021 and has asked Colorado Gov. Jared Polis to transfer her to federal custody or release her due to her reportedly worsening health.
As Peters’s conviction was reached by a state jury, Trump’s pardon did not change her incarceration status. Peters asked a federal court to grant a habeas corpus petition and free her on bond pending the outcome of her appeal, a request denied in December by Chief Magistrate Judge Scott T. Varholak on the basis that “because this question remains pending before Colorado courts, this Court must abstain from answering that question until after the Colorado courts have decided the issue.”
Trump has always said he won the 2020 election and, in a December interview with Politico, that evidence will soon be made public proving it.
At the World Economic Forum (WEF) on January 21, Trump said in his formal address, “people will soon be prosecuted for what they did.”
“One thing is for certain: The 2020 election was not stolen,” PBS reported at the day. “Biden earned 306 electoral votes to Trump’s 232. Trump’s allegations of massive voting fraud have been broadly refuted.”
On Wednesday, acting on a search warrant, the FBI removed approximately 700 boxes of “original voting records” from Fulton County, GA in connection with that contest, according to Patel.
Fulton County officials plan to sue the Justice Department over the records seizure, NBC News reported.
On August 14, 2023, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis charged Trump and 18 others for “election subversion” and “racketeering” in a highly-publicized case following a grand jury investigation. Several of those eventually charged entered “guilty” pleas.
Willis was removed from prosecuting the matter after Trump’s attorneys challenged her objectivity due to her having hired a romantic partner to lead the investigation. On December 1, Judge Scott McAfee announced the dismissal of the charges at the request of Willis’s successor to the case.
At a December 9 meeting of the Georgia elections board, County Attorney Ann Brumbaugh admitted “they did not properly sign tabulator tapes after the 2020 election, a violation of state regulations” affecting 315,000 votes.
“The county also noted it had misplaced other tabulator tapes and documents related to the controversial election,” Atlanta News First reported. The omission and “misplacement” of materials violate the Rules and Regulations of the State of Georgia, Subject 183-1-12.
An official election report from Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffenspurger stated Joe Biden won the state’s 16 electoral votes by 11,779, hence Trump’s request that “11,780 votes” for him be “found.”
“…you’re off by hundreds of thousands of votes,” Trump told Raffenspurger at the time in a telephone call which became a flash point in Trump’s pursuit of a second term.
The Georgia Secretary of State’s office now reports Biden won the election by 12,670 votes.
As in late 2020, the media is maintaining its stance that Trump’s claims are “false” without conducting its own investigations.
“A Transformative Figure”
Bongino said Trump is “spot-on” regarding his approach to “hemispheric dominance,” particularly in regard to South America.
Having spoken of his predecessor’s missteps while boarding Air Force One and stating the steps are “slippery,” Trump said at 11:50, “We are respected again like never before.”
“Again,” Bongino responded, “it was a tremendous honor” to work for the Trump administration. “Thank you so much for joining us on our first show,” he said, then stated he enjoyed seeing Trump at the wedding of longtime Trump aide Dan Scavino over the weekend.
“Thank you for your service; thank you for a great job, and I’ll be around when you need me,” the president said as the interview closed.
“What an honor to have worked for such a transformative figure,” Bongino followed. “I’m getting all choked up after that interview.”
In the final minutes of the show, he thanked his staff and called upon “Josh” to show viewers his “Freedom” shirt, a reproduction of the shirt the late Charlie Kirk had worn during his final event on September 10, 2025 at Utah Valley University.
A photo of Bongino and Kirk was displayed, at which time Bongino’s voice dropped to little more than a whisper while he thanked Kirk for what he did for “the movement.”
He thanked Fox News hosts Sean Hannity and Mark Levin, who he said have “always had my back.”
Bongino included a promotion of Vince Coglianese, who was brought in to take his place but beginning one hour earlier than previously at the now-retained time of 10:00 a.m. ET. Coglianese’s show now airs at 8:00 a.m.
Bongino encouraged viewers to “stay tuned” to watch host Hayley Coronia on her show titled, “Scrolling with Hayley.”
Bongino’s audio-video broadcast, produced by Silverloch Media, is streamed exclusively on Rumble, while the audio of the show can be accessed here, here and here.
Updated, Feb. 3, 2026, 7:00 p.m. EST