President Donald Trump called Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino “pretty out there” during his trip to Iowa on Tuesday.
“Bovino’s very good, but he’s a pretty out there kind of a guy. And in some cases that’s good; maybe it wasn’t good here,” Trump said.
Trump made the comments in an interview with Fox News’s Will Cain, the same day Bovino’s demotion from his role overseeing Border Patrol’s operations with Immigration and Customs Enforcement became effective. The news of Bovino’s demotion broke two days after a Border Patrol agent fatally shot 37-year-old Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.
Trump spoke about the state of the surge in ICE operations in the Twin Cities during his interview in an Iowa restaurant. Tensions in Minnesota have been high in recent weeks with the killing of Pretti and Renee Good by federal officers and the spike in anti-ICE protests across the state.
“But you have to understand, when I watch some of the people that I’ve been watching over the last few weeks, these are paid insurrectionists. These are paid agitators,” Trump said.
The Trump administration made changes in the leadership overseeing the Minneapolis immigration enforcement operations following Pretti’s killing. As Bovino was demoted back to overseeing Border Patrol operations in El Centro, California, the administration also reassigned the Border Patrol agents involved with the fatal shooting.
Democratic lawmakers and GOP mavericks Sens. Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) have mounted pressure on the Trump administration to oust Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem as the administration responds to Pretti’s killing. But Trump backed Noem on Tuesday, telling Cain that he still has confidence in the DHS secretary.
“I do. Look, she was there with the border. Who closed up the border? She did, with Tom Homan, with the whole group,” Trump said, referring to Noem.
MAN SPRAYS ILHAN OMAR WITH UNKNOWN SUBSTANCE AT MINNEAPOLIS TOWN HALL EVENT
Trump sent in border czar Tom Homan to Minneapolis this week to communicate with local leaders in an effort to de-escalate tensions between protesters and federal law enforcement in the Twin Cities. Homan said he met with local law enforcement officials, Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), and Democratic Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey on Tuesday.
“We all agree that we need to support our law enforcement officers and get criminals off the streets. While we don’t agree on everything, these meetings were a productive starting point and I look forward to more conversations with key stakeholders in the days ahead,” Homan said on X.
