President Donald Trump’s axed Border Patrol goon embarked on a homecoming roadtrip.
Gregory Bovino, the former head of the president’s immigration crackdown who was asked to leave Minneapolis following Saturday’s fatal shooting of VA ICU nurse Alex Pretti, was seen driving across the country after Trump asked his border czar to pick up the pieces of Bovino’s PR disaster.
Discerning observers recognized the “commander at large” of Customs and Border Protection as he traveled west across the U.S., the Minnesota Star Tribune reported, as his SUV convoy headed toward its final destination in El Centro, California—Bovino’s former home base before the immigration crackdown.
A source who spoke with Bovino, but asked to remain anonymous for fear of losing their job, told the Star Tribune that Bovino had checked into a hotel in Rapid City, South Dakota, on Tuesday evening.
The next day, Bovino, 55, recorded a video message in front of Mount Rushmore, shared on X by conservative influencer Nick Sortor, attempting to inspire his “mean green machine” in Minneapolis.
“Team, behind me are a few individuals there. That’s the original ‘Turn and Burn,’ the folks that help make America,” Bovino said, referring to the presidents Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson.
The ousted immigration chief said he was “very proud” of what his federal officials had accomplished across the country, adding that they were the “modern-day equivalent” of the Rushmore figures.
A video taken by Wyoming resident Megan Pope on Thursday, shared to Facebook, shows what appears to be Bovino’s convoy leaving a hotel in southwestern Wyoming.
Pope, 24, told Cowboy State Daily that she saw Bovino carrying a rifle and had waved to observers.
The Star Tribune reported that Wyoming Highway Patrol troopers responded to a hotel in Rock Springs, Wyoming, on Thursday after a “small group of protesters” prevented federal officers from entering their vehicles in the parking lot.
The Daily Beast reached out to the Wyoming Highway Patrol to confirm the dispatch of troopers.
When asked for confirmation of Bovino’s journey home, the DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Bovino, who was almost forced to retire in 2023 after posing with an assault rifle in a photo shared to social media, was asked to leave the Twin Cities after the political powder keg set by the fatal shooting of Minneapolis mother Renee Nicole Good on Jan. 7 exploded on Saturday.
Two Border Patrol agents, who were placed on a three-day administrative leave, shot and killed Pretti, 37, after he was seen on video stepping in between federal officers and a woman who was shoved to the ground.
A group of federal officers punched Pretti, disarmed him of a handgun he was legally carrying and did not brandish, and brought him to the ground, where he was shot numerous times.
An official told CNN that Bovino’s departure from the city was a “mutual decision.” Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, was sent to the city to quell tensions.
