Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino has gone on a frantic social media posting spree as he doubles down on defending the killing of a protester by federal agents in Minneapolis.
The leader of Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant surge in Minnesota was posting late into the night as he and other senior administration officials face intense backlash for their response to the shooting of 37-year-old Alex Pretti.
Bovino baselessly claimed the ICU nurse was plotting to “massacre law enforcement” before he was pinned to the ground by several immigration officers and shot, and suggested Border Patrol agents were the “victims” of the incident.
Multiple videos from the scene show that Pretti—who was legally permitted to carry a firearm—never drew his handgun at officers and appeared to have been disarmed before he was shot. The Second Amendment protects Americans’ right to bear arms, including while attending public protests.
In one X post just before 1 a.m. ET, Bovino wrote “lol,” followed by several beer emojis, after a social media user praised the top Border Patrol official and suggested he would “never pay for a drink again” after Bovino mocked Rep. Eric Swalwell online.
The Democrat was demanding that ICE agents “walk off the job” in protest to the killing of Pretti, to which Bovino replied: “I was thinking the same for you.”
Bovino also posted “lol” in response to a comment suggesting one of his critics was simply “mad that he doesn’t have a nice coat.” Bovino has been widely condemned for wearing an almost full-length olive-green coat during immigration raids in Minneapolis, an outfit critics said resembled a Nazi officer’s uniform.
Elsewhere, Bovino replied just before 1 a.m. ET to a former DHS official who said he was “enraged and embarrassed by DHS’s lawlessness, fascism, and cruelty” in the wake of Pretti’s killing. “I was in DHS in ’03 and don’t reme.ber [sic] you at all,” Bovino wrote.
Earlier Sunday, Bovino also responded to a QAnon-supporting X account that posted a fake report that MAGA singer Ted Nugent had donated $100,000 to help feed ICE agents in Minneapolis, a claim that originated from a parody news site.
“Good job, Ted,” a clueless Bovino wrote.
Multiple Trump administration officials rushed to attack Pretti in the immediate aftermath of his killing, even as videos from the scene contradict their statements.
The effort to distort the facts echoes the administration’s response to the killing of 37-year-old Renee Good, who was shot repeatedly in the face by ICE agent Jonathan Ross despite videos appearing to show she was slowly driving away from federal agents in Minneapolis.
Bovino did not cite any evidence to support his claim that Pretti “assaulted federal officers” when pressed during an interview on CNN’s Face the Nation on Sunday.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem claimed Pretti intended to “inflict maximum damage” on officers and was “brandishing” his gun. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller also accused Pretti of being an “assassin” and a “domestic terrorist.”
In a statement, Pretti’s parents said the “sickening lies” being pushed by the Trump administration about their son are “reprehensible and disgusting.”
The Daily Beast has contacted U.S. Border Patrol for comment.
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