Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel appeared on The Dan Bongino Show on Wednesday, February 18, and elaborated on President Donald Trump’s briefing routine.
Explaining why it is referred to as the “President’s Daily Briefing,” Patel said, “You know why it’s called the President’s Daily Briefing? Because the president decides what are the intel priorities in that briefing.”
He added, “And President Trump has decided what intel priorities agencies like the FBI and CIA [Central Intelligence Agency] are to act upon.” Dan Bongino, a conservative podcaster and former FBI deputy director who served for 10 months before leaving the agency earlier in 2026, appeared quite impressed by this revelation.
Since its inception in 1946, the goal of the president’s daily briefings, however, has been to inform the president and key cabinet members about national security concerns rather than having the president select the intelligence topics.
Kash Patel BRAGS About Arrests on Ex-FBI Partners Podcast pic.twitter.com/iOK9NvJ7vd
— Alex R. Wagner 🇺🇸 (@alexwagner1776) February 19, 2026
From Patel’s statement, it appeared that Trump follows a different approach during the briefings.
NBC News reported in 2025 that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was working on ways to engage Trump with these briefings in a better way so that things could run as they are supposed to.
Given Trump’s love for television, Gabbard considered creating a video version of the meeting so that it would look more like a Fox News segment and have better chances of getting Trump engaged. Interestingly, during his first term as president, the briefings aligned more with Trump’s preferences, as they incorporated more images and graphics than words.
Moreover, Trump’s briefings, regardless of their nature, have decreased in number. As of June 2025, the president held an average of one briefing every week, which is fewer in comparison to his predecessors and his first term.
Patel, however, did not seem bothered by the way the briefings are being conducted and said that Trump’s method of selecting intel topics has led to “historic reduction in crime.” He added, “What the president doesn’t get enough credit for is, he’s the one that directs the intelligence in the Presidential Daily Briefing to set the priorities for this FBI to act.”
Don’t miss the show today with a guest appearance by FBI Director Kash Patel.
Watch here. 👇🏻https://t.co/eMnmRACixe
— Dan Bongino (@dbongino) February 18, 2026
Bongino then praised Patel’s performance as the FBI director, saying, “I think you and I did a pretty good job, but you know, it really isn’t hard when you focus on the bad guys.” Patel replied that it was easier for him to do the job because he is allowed to do what he signed up for.
The FBI director also stated that when he and Bongino traveled to various places in the country, people thanked them. He said, “People came up to us, moms and pops from every town. And said, ‘Thank you to you and this Trump administration for keeping our kids safe and keeping murderers off the streets and keeping drugs out of our communities and letting our children have a safe environment to grow up in’.”
Trump and his administration have repeatedly claimed that crime rates have gone down drastically during his presidency, although crime data occasionally contradicts these statements.
