Donald Trump's Ousted Border Chief Blasts DHS Secretary in Explosive Far-Right Revolt

Donald Trump's ousted border chief Gregory Bovino has launched a blistering public attack on Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and senior Trump aide Susie Wiles at a far-right 'Remigration' summit in Porto, Portugal, on Sunday, accusing the administration of trying to 'water down' mass deportation plans. The news came after months of simmering resentment from Bovino, once the most visible face of Trump's immigration crackdown and now a symbol of its excesses.

The 56-year-old career enforcer was forced into retirement in January after nearly three decades in federal service, following violent clashes between protesters and federal agents in Minneapolis that resulted in the deaths of two 37-year-old US citizens, Alex Pretti and Renee Good, during separate incidents involving federal immigration enforcement. Since then, he has shifted from publicly angling for his old job back to denouncing the very team that pushed him out.

Ousted Border Chief Turns on Trump's Inner Circle Over Mass Deportations

Bovino's complaints have coalesced around a single theme: he believes the Trump White House is retreating from the hardline deportation agenda that made him a star of the MAGA universe.

In a video from the Remigration Summit that he posted online, Bovino railed at what he called 'timid politicians' and said his 'battle' was no longer with immigrants but with Trump's own 'inner circle' who, he claimed, were too cautious to embrace mass expulsions on the scale he favours.

Speaking to a far-right outlet ahead of the Porto event, Bovino said he 'would have briefed Trump directly on several occasions, rather than relying on this inner circle who might have other interests.' That line captured his broader grievance, that advisers, not the president himself, are softening plans that have electrified parts of the Republican base and horrified civil liberties groups.

His sharpest barbs were aimed at Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, a former senator and plumbing business owner who now oversees Trump's immigration machine. On stage in Portugal, Bovino said Trump 'needed some "better advice" regarding immigration,' then followed with a pointed, almost mocking aside.

'Mullin's a great guy, great plumber, no doubt about that; he could probably fix a leaky faucet,' Bovino told the audience. 'But a hundred million illegal aliens is not a leaky faucet.' He later reposted those remarks on X, pairing them with a lengthy caption that read like both a policy memo and a loyalty test.

Bovino argued that Trump's own polling showed 'immigration is his top issue' and that voters 'trust him on the border more than anyone.' Given that, Bovino demanded to know 'why is [Susie Wiles] pushing to dial it back and water down mass deportations?'

'You don't win by running away from your strongest issue. Mass deportations are the solution to perpetual victory!' he wrote, presenting forced removals as both a security measure and an electoral strategy.

Bovino Uses Protests to Press His Case Against Mullin

In case you missed it, Bovino has been using unrest outside a New Jersey immigration detention facility as his main showcase for what he casts as Mullin's weakness. For more than a week, protesters have gathered at the Delaney Hall detention centre in Newark, which has been accused of inhumane conditions.

Bovino has repeatedly referred to the demonstrations as 'riots,' accusing the federal government of failing to reassert control. 'Day 9 of the riots and people like [Wiles] and [Chris LaCivita] are steering the president toward caving to anarchists instead of the strong immigration enforcement voters demanded,' he wrote on X. 'This isn't what America voted for.'

There is no independent confirmation in the source material of his characterisation of the protests as 'riots.' and his framing should be treated with caution. What is uncontested is that Bovino has seized on the unrest as proof, in his eyes, that the current team at the Department of Homeland Security is out of its depth.

On Thursday, he went further, suggesting he should personally 'handle' the anti-ICE protests in Newark. He posted a selfie from an airport gate, pointing to a departure screen and writing, 'Hey everyone, that's me at the airport pointing to the next flight to Newark. Flight 3450, 2:27 PM, on time.'

He then offered what sounded like an ultimatum dressed up as crowd work. Mullin 'and the rest of them have been trying to handle these riots and... well, let's just say it's not going great,' Bovino wrote, before asking followers, 'For those of you in the comments section, give a vote. Should I just handle this myself?'

He did not attach an actual poll. He closed the post with a warning aimed squarely at his former colleagues, saying, 'Those agents' lives are at stake due to this inaction. @SusieWiles.'

A Public Grievance Campaign Largely Ignored by Trump World

The official response so far has been silence. According to the original reporting, the White House has not publicly acknowledged Bovino's increasingly personal salvos against Mullin, Wiles and senior campaign adviser Chris LaCivita. The Daily Beast said it had asked for comment but received none.

What is clear, at least from Bovino's own accounts and his media appearances, is that being pushed out after nearly 30 years has not mellowed him. He became an unlikely online meme during Trump's first term, likened to a Nazi cosplay character because of a distinctive green trench coat he frequently wore while overseeing deportation raids.

On Fox News, he fumed that immigration asylum was a 'scam' that was 'designed to break the system.' Even now, Bovino addresses Trump in deferential terms while attacking the people around him.

'Mr. President, this is the path to perpetual victory; please follow it. We know you have healthy instincts and guts,' he wrote in one recent post, a mixture of flattery and pressure designed to pull Trump further towards the outer edges of the far-right on immigration.

Nothing in Bovino's account has been independently verified beyond his own statements and posts, and there is no confirmation from inside the administration about any move to 'dial back' deportation plans.

For now, his campaign looks less like a coordinated factional struggle and more like a very public attempt by a sidelined enforcer to drag the Trump White House back towards the hardest possible line.