Ousted Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino is mounting a public campaign against the Trump administration—while pitching himself for the job he lost.
Bovino, the face of Donald Trump’s brutal deportation operation before his removal following the deaths of two U.S. citizens at the hands of federal agents, suggested Thursday that he should “handle” the ongoing anti-ICE protests at Delaney Hall detention center in Newark, New Jersey.
“Hey everyone, that’s me at the airport pointing to the next flight to Newark. Flight 3450, 2:27 PM, on time,” the 56-year-old wrote on X alongside a selfie of him pointing to an airport gate’s departure screen.
He then took swings at Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who replaced “ICE Barbie” Kristi Noem in March, and other members of the Trump administration.
“@SenMullin and the rest of them have been trying to handle these riots and… well, let’s just say it’s not going great,” Bovino continued, before offering himself up as the solution with a performative question to his followers.
“For those of you in the comments section, give a vote. Should I just handle this myself?” he wrote, without actually posting a poll for X users to respond to.
He concluded his post, “Those agents’ lives are at stake due to this inaction. @SusieWiles‚” tagging Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, who runs the administration’s staff and day-to-day operations.
Bovino later reposted a video of him arriving at Newark Liberty International Airport.
“Just landed in Newark and the love from you guys hits different,” he wrote on X. “People stopping me left and right, shaking my hand, thanking me for the work — that’s what keeps me going.”
The White House and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Bovino, who was demoted from his post as Border Patrol “commander-at-large” in January and then retired in March, has kept busy since by blasting the Trump administration’s supposedly softened immigration policy.
Earlier on Thursday, he took aim at Mullin, the 48-year-old former Republican senator, for his handling of the protests at the New Jersey detention center, where incarcerated migrants have launched a hunger strike over the institution’s allegedly rotten food, broiling heat, and the withholding of medical care.
While ICE officers have used pepper spray and their batons to try to disperse protesters, Bovino said they should be using “gas.”
“I don’t know who’s holding these guys back, but basic riot control starts with gas. This should’ve been over in 15 minutes,” he wrote. “Secretary Mullin’s inaction is putting his own agents, the facility, and the detained aliens at risk. Hesitation isn’t compassion — it’s dangerous weakness.”
Bovino’s heavy-handed tactics sparked nationwide outrage over Trump’s immigration crackdown in January, when federal agents shot and killed two American citizens, Renée Good and Alex Pretti, in Minnesota.
That led Trump to replace Bovino with border czar Tom Homan.
Speaking on The Megyn Kelly Show earlier this month, Bovino claimed that “mass deportations hardliners” like himself and Noem were being ousted from the administration.
“You want results?” Bovino said on The Megyn Kelly Show earlier this week. “You create fear. Mass operations. Roving patrols. Zero mixed signals.”
