The former face of the Trump administration’s hostile immigration campaign is now eyeing an unlikely return to power.
Gregory Bovino, the formerly self-styled commander-at-large of the deadly Minneapolis migrant crackdown, is gearing up for a 2028 presidential bid following his rocky tenure at the Department of Homeland Security, the Daily Beast can reveal.
“If I were President, I’d lead that [deportation] effort from the front and be on the front lines from time to time,” Bovino said in a statement—a thinly veiled jab at Donald Trump, whom he has accused of backing away from aggressive immigration enforcement.
To gear up for his White House run, supporters of the 56-year-old have rolled out Bovino2028.com, and mapped out a nationwide tour to rally supporters. A team of political outcasts from MAGA’s far right are leading the charge, including one aide who was arrested on meth possession charges two weeks ago.
Bovino, once a mid-level Border Patrol commander known for his hard-line tactics, was tapped last year to lead the agency’s operations by then-Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and her de facto chief adviser, Corey Lewandowski.
The commander’s monthslong reign of terror culminated in the deaths of two American citizens at the hands of federal agents on the streets of Minneapolis in January, which Bovino initially chalked up as acts of self-defense. Soon after, the immigration hardliner—and his long trench coat, likened by critics to an SS-era uniform—was pressured into retirement.
Rather than disappear from public life, Bovino has emerged as an increasingly vocal critic of the White House.
Over the weekend, after sharing a video of himself speaking at the Remigration Summit in Portugal—where far-right Europeans gathered to promote the mass expulsion of immigrants and minority groups from their countries—Bovino used the opportunity to take aim at White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.
“Why is [Wiles] pushing to dial it back and water down mass deportations?” Bovino wrote.
That growing feud with Trumpworld is what inspired Jacob Engels, 34, and George Riley, the former executive director of the Republican Party of Florida, to launch the ousted Border Patrol commander’s comeback.
“When he put on that trench coat and when he started having these press conferences—which were not authorized by [James] Blair or Wiles, and that greatly upset them, because it took the control away of managing him,“ Engels said.
Wiles did not respond to the Daily Beast’s request for comment. White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson scoffed at Bovino’s suggestion that he would be tougher on immigration than the president.
“There has never been a President who has been stronger on border security and immigration enforcement than President Trump,” she said, adding that “ICE and CBP officers love President Trump.”
According to several reports, Bovino is married and a father, though little further information is publicly available.
On his campaign site, Bovino is cast as a warrior-statesman uniquely capable of restoring “national sovereignty.” One slogan reads: “Bovino Knows What America Needs—America’s Men.”
His platform appears to be a grab bag of culture-war talking points and tough-on-crime proposals. Among them: equating the punishment for animal abusers with that for harming a human being, reinstating the failed Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, and forming a “department of masculinity in order to save the young men of America.”
The two men spearheading the unconventional campaign have checkered pasts themselves.
Just last week, Engels was arrested and charged with a felony for possession of methamphetamine in Wisconsin. He denied the crimes to the Daily Beast, and said he plans to plead not guilty, pending legal advice.
And in 2019, Florida House candidate Elizabeth Cornell, a Republican, filed a defamation suit against him over blog posts in which he accused her of having an affair with a married man. The following year, Engels was held in contempt of court and had an arrest warrant issued against him for refusing to comply with discovery requests in the case. He was fined $1,500 per day for his noncompliance. Engels claimed he simply struggled with the court filing system.
Engels, for his part, denied wrongdoing. “The civil case was an example of lawfare that many in the America First movement have faced,” he said.
As for Riley, the 45-year-old political operative was reported missing by his family in 2024. He was eventually found at a local Hampton Inn. A police report obtained by the Tampa Bay Times said Riley was thrown out of the hotel after what officers described as “extensive drinking and damage caused to the room.” Hotel employees said Riley had “urinated and vomited throughout,” trashed the room’s electric blinds, and was charged an additional fee for a deep cleaning to try to undo the mess.
He’s also joined by Joana Alvarez, a Chicagoan who legally immigrated to the United States from Mexico at age 12 and has dubbed herself “The Bovino Queen” on X, where she is one of his most vocal supporters.
“His level of ethics is something unique, something I have never seen before,” Alvarez said of Bovino, who in November was singled out by a judge for “false testimony” that he was hit in the head with a rock before he lobbed gas at protesters—saying Bovino “later admitted that he lied” after DHS failed to provide any evidence to support its claim.
Bovino’s team told the Daily Beast that he appeals to voters with a growing “hunger” for a non-establishment candidate—despite his holding one of the most visible roles in the Trump administration.
“We’ve already had several disaffected members of Congress, both former and current, along with outsider interest, approach the team to request early vetting as potential running mates,” Engels said.
For now, the team is focused on fundraising and plotting a nationwide tour. The ultimate goal, Engels said, is to deliver a “hero’s welcome” for Bovino in Minnesota, where the ousted Border Patrol commander was often photographed in the middle of the chaos his immigration sweeps created, lobbing gas canisters and jostling with protesters.
