Former Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino’s nascent 2028 presidential campaign suffered a blow when Jacob Engels, a controversial figure tasked with launching the candidate’s online presence, was arrested at a budget motel and charged with felony methamphetamine possession.
According to reporting from The Bulwark’s Will Sommers, Engels — a former protégé of Roger Stone and associate of far-right activist Laura Loomer — had taken the lead in promoting Bovino’s candidacy before his arrest in River Falls, Wisconsin, on May 20.
Bovino, the polarizing face of the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement operations, had pitched himself as a presidential candidate on X, writing: “If running for President is what it takes to actually get it done, then all options are on the table.”
According to Sommers, Engels’s involvement proved short-lived and likely over based upon a police incident report obtained by False Flag reporting that sheriff’s deputies in the small Wisconsin town were called to a budget motel around 1 p.m. on May 20. The night before, Engels and his mother had been arguing so loudly that police were called to separate them.
When officers returned the next afternoon, Engels refused to check out of the motel. Staff gave him extra time, but Engels remained belligerent, allegedly calling the receptionist a “special b—h.” When deputies entered the room, they found it strewn with empty liquor bottles. Engels was “highly intoxicated” and “reeked of intoxicants,” according to the report.
“His speech was repetitive, vulgar, confrontational, argumentative and he was overall incredibly uncooperative,” one officer noted.
Engels allegedly waved a wooden paddle in a threatening manner and made vague boasts about his football prowess, purportedly declaring to deputies: “I could scoop you both!”—apparently meaning he could body-slam them, the report notes.
After Engels allegedly refused to leave, deputies forcibly restrained and handcuffed him. During a search of his pockets, deputies discovered muscle relaxant pills, Xanax, and a dollar bill bearing traces of methamphetamine.
The incident was Engels’s second motel ban in the River Falls area within one week.
Engels now faces felony methamphetamine charges alongside four misdemeanors related to resisting arrest and drug possession. Engels has claimed he informed Bovino about the incident, and that the “commander had no concerns” about the arrest—a statement that raises serious questions about the judgment of a candidate positioning himself for national office, Sommer wrote.
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