California Governor Gavin Newsom has mocked Donald Trump’s decision to bench his top trench-coated immigration enforcer in favor of his border czar as the president attempts to “diffuse the chaos” in Minneapolis.
On Monday, amid growing national outrage over yet another U.S. citizen being killed by federal agents, the president announced he would send Tom Homan to Minneapolis to try to de-escalate tensions.
The move effectively sidelined Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who has come under fire in recent days for her portrayal of the victim, Alex Pretti, as a domestic terrorist intent on causing harm – despite video evidence to the contrary.
Speaking about the changes on Monday, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that Customs and Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino had also been benched, telling reporters: “Mr Homan will be the main point of contact on the ground in Minneapolis.”
The 55-year-old commander and hundreds of Border Patrol agents will leave the city on Tuesday, while ICE officers are expected to remain on the ground.
Trump’s attempt to recalibrate underscores the frustration within the White House that his signature election policy has now become a major source of outrage.
But Newsom ridiculed the personnel shake-up, writing on X: “In an effort to de-escalate, the Trump Admin is benching the Nazi-Cosplayer for Mr. Bribes.”
The comment was a reference to the fact Homan was investigated by the FBI in 2024 for allegedly accepting a $50,000 cash bribe from undercover agents posing as businessmen seeking future government contracts.
However, the Department of Justice closed the probe after Trump won the election, citing insufficient evidence.
The White House called the investigation an attempt at political entrapment, while Homan denies wrongdoing.
“I didn’t take $50,000 from anybody,” Homan told conservative pundit Bill O’Reilly during a NewsNation town hall last year.
Bovino, meanwhile, had become the notorious face of Trump’s deportation strategy, as well as the subject of Nazi cosplay memes due to his trademark green trench coat.
Thanks to Newsom, the infamous coat received international attention last week when the California Democrat shared a clip of Bovino at the World Economic Forum in Davos, mocking him for looking “as if he literally went on eBay and purchased SS garb.”
Asked about his signature look on NewsNation, a visibly irritated Bovino replied: “That coat is definitely Border Patrol-issue. I’ve had it over 25 years. I bought that at a young age in approximately 1999.”
But the commander’s response to the heavy-handed tactics of federal agents in recent weeks has sparked much broader alarm than his fashion choices.
Last week, Bovino claimed that ICE and Border Patrol agents were receiving “fantastic public support” even as polls show the majority of Americans have now turned against it.
And on Sunday, after Pretti was gunned down by Border Patrol agents, he referred to the veteran affairs nurse as a “suspect” who put himself in that situation – despite video suggesting Pretti s simply filming the operation on his mobile phone and attempting to help a woman who’d been pushed before he was shot.
“The victims are the Border Patrol agents there,” he told CNN”s State of the Union.
Speaking on Monday, Leavitt insisted that Trump still had the “utmost confidence” in Noem despite Homan being sent in to “subdue the chaos on the streets on Minneapolis.”
“Secretary Noem still has the utmost confidence and trust of the president of the United States, and she is continuing to oversee the entire Department of Homeland Security and all of the immigration enforcement that’s taking place across the entire country,” Leavitt said.
As for Bovino, she said: “Mr Bovino is a wonderful man and he’s a great professional. He is very much going to continue CBP throughout and across the country. Mr Homan will be the main point of contact on the ground in Minneapolis.”
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