Ousted Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino appeared on Fox News with a bizarre prop lurking in the background.
Bovino, who was the face of Donald Trump’s deadly deportation operation before being removed following the deaths of two U.S. citizens at the hands of federal agents, beamed into The Ingraham Angle on Thursday to rant about “fake asylum claims.”
But the 56-year-old retired official made the eyebrow-raising choice of decorating his background with an oversized, framed image of himself in uniform, clutching a rifle and leering into the camera.
The effect was almost disorienting, with Bovino’s real face in the foreground and a smaller one looming behind it, turning the interview into a curious testament to his self-regard.
The image appears to bear multiple signatures, suggesting it may have been gifted by colleagues.
Host Laura Ingraham made no mention of Bovino’s background of self-adoration, instead showering the retired Border Patrol official with praise and even casting him as a victim of the Minneapolis immigration crackdown.
“Greg, I want to personally thank you for your service to this country. You got a lot of grief after Minneapolis,” the 62-year-old Fox host said.
“You served this country as a patriot and proudly. And I have utmost respect for you, sir. And thank you for what you tried to do for this country and what you did over all those years.”
Bovino lit up and said, “Well, thank you, Laura, 30 years with the Green Team, it doesn’t get any better than that and I’m very blessed.”
Bovino retired from the Border Patrol in March after nearly 30 years. Trump had demoted him in January after he presided over violent clashes between protesters and federal agents that culminated in the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, both 37, in Minneapolis.
Bovino, who became the subject of Nazi cosplay memes due to his trademark green trench coat, fumed during his Fox News appearance that immigration asylum is a “scam” that was “designed to break the system.”
