Trump knifes ‘little Napoleon’ Border Patrol commander over Minnesota mayhem as he declares: ‘We’ll de-escalate’

Donald Trump stabbed a top Border Patrol commander and said “we will de-escalate” after a protester was shot and killed by federal agents in Minnesota.

Gregory Bovino, the face of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s immigration crackdown, was ordered to return to his home state of California on Monday.

The president appeared to offer veiled praise for Bovino while dissecting his notoriously aggressive tactics in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday.

“Bovino is really good,” Trump said before the rally in Clive, Iowa. ‘He’s quite an out there guy; In some cases this is good, maybe not here. This is not a retreat, just a small change. You’re making small changes.’

Trump ordered longtime Noem rival Tom Homan, an ICE veteran, to take over an immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota after 37-year-old VA nurse Alex Pretti was shot and killed by agents in Minneapolis on Saturday.

‘There’s Tom Homan there now, we put him there. He’s a great guy, and they’ve talked to the governor and the mayor and everybody else, and we’re going to de-escalate some,” the president told Fox.

According to reports, Trump was disappointed with Noem, who branded Pretti a ‘domestic terrorist’. Pretti was carrying a licensed handgun but appeared to be disarmed when he was shot ten times in less than five seconds.

The president said of the murder: ‘This is all terrible. I don’t like the fact that he carries a fully loaded gun… He had two magazines with him, which is quite unusual. But no one knows when they saw the gun, how they saw it, everything else.’

Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino observes a protest in Minneapolis on January 15

Pretti, 37, was shot and killed by a Border Patrol agent during an immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis on Saturday.

A screenshot from a video obtained by Reuters shows a law enforcement officer pinning down a man identified as Alex Pretti before he was fatally shot as federal agents tried to take him into custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., Jan. 24

The president added that “they both suck,” referring to Renee Good, who was shot and killed by ICE agents during a protest in Minneapolis on January 7.

Good’s family felt the tragedy especially keenly because they were Trump voters.

‘I’m not sure about his family but I know [Good’s] “The parents were huge Trump fans,” Trump added.

‘It already makes me feel bad, but I guess you could say it’s worse. They were huge Trump people, Trump fans, and you know, their daughter was, would you say radicalized, maybe radicalized, I don’t know.’

Trump has previously said he stood by Noem even though he instructed Homan to oversee the Minnesota operation and report directly to him.

“I think he’s done a very good job,” the president told reporters outside the White House on Tuesday.

‘The border is completely safe… We had a border that we inherited, where millions of people came, and now we have a border that no one crosses.’

According to reports, the President met with Noem late Sunday night and grilled her about her handling and initial reaction to the attack.

Kristi Noem faces Trump’s wrath as she orders her longtime rival, border czar Tom Homan, to clean up the chaos caused by the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis

Corey Lewandowski, Noem’s advisor and alleged lover, was also with her at the Oval Office summit, attended by White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.

By the end of the night, Noem was ordered to shift her focus away from domestic immigration enforcement operations and focus instead on securing the Southern Border.

Despite the outrage, Noem is expected to keep her job for now.

Bovino, Noem’s law enforcement ally in the field, also withdrew, along with many of his agents. Initially, Noem and Lewandowski assigned Bovino to oversee high-profile immigration raids in U.S. urban centers including Los Angeles, Chicago and, most recently, Minneapolis.

The decision sparked domestic outrage among ICE-aligned immigration officials because these operations traditionally fell under their jurisdiction, not the Border Patrol’s.

Bovino was shipped to California Monday night as Homan prepared to take over ground operations in Minneapolis. The Daily Mail can confirm that Border Patrol Commissioner Rodney Scott has revoked Bovino’s access to government-issued social media accounts.

Bovino, a 30-year Border Patrol veteran, was selected last year to lead the highly publicized immigration crackdown across the country from his post as chief patrol agent in the agency’s El Centro sector in Southern California.

Bovino’s leadership of highly visible federal crackdowns, including operations that led to mass demonstrations in Los Angeles, Chicago, Charlotte and Minneapolis, has drawn harsh criticism from local officials, civil rights advocates and Congressional Democrats.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz speaks at a news conference in Blaine, Minnesota, on Sunday

Noem with her close advisor and rumored lover Corey Lewandowski (right)

He often stood out as the only agent wearing a face covering when Border Patrol descended on Home Depots and gas stations.

Bovino went viral on social media as he was often seen on the front lines wearing a serious buzzcut and a trench coat, which German media likened to a ‘Nazi aesthetic’.

California Governor Gavin Newsom said on X: ‘Greg Bovino was dressed as if he had gone on eBay and bought SS clothes. ‘Greg Bovino, secret police, private army, masked men, people literally disappearing, no due process.’

Bovino countered by claiming that he had had the coat for more than 25 years and that it was official Border Patrol merchandise.

Jenn Budd, an author and expert on the Border Patrol, described Bovino as the agency’s “Freedom.”

‘He was a little Napoleon who wanted you to think that he was the most moral and capable man in the world and that everything around you was dangerous, but he’s the one who’s going to save you,’ Budd told The Times. ‘This is all a show for him.’

He once invited reporters to watch him swim through a canal in Southern California’s Imperial Valley in an attempt to deter immigrants from considering crossing.

After Trump was re-elected, Bovino used similar public relations expertise to get the president’s attention.

He sent dozens of agents to detain immigrants at highway gas stations ahead of Trump’s inauguration.

When asked why Bovino was chosen to head the agency, DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin bluntly told reporters: ‘Because he’s a pain in the ass.’

But while Bovino’s strongman image has earned him Trump’s respect, his self-proclaimed “spin and burn” enforcement strategies have raised concerns.

A federal judge in November accused Bovino of being “fugitive” and at times “blatantly lying” in affidavits about Chicago’s immigration crackdown, finding his account “simply unconvincing.”

Judge Sara Ellis wrote that Bovino even admitted to lying about being hit with a rock before ordering the use of tear gas, noting that the video evidence clearly contradicted his claim that he never tackled a protester.