President Trump on Tuesday said pulling controversial Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino and some agents from Minneapolis was not a retreat, although he called Mr. Bovino a “pretty ‘out-there’ kind of guy.”
“I don’t think it’s a pullback — it’s a little bit of a change,” Mr. Trump told Fox News during a live interview in Iowa. “Everybody in this room that has a business, you know, you make little changes. You know Bovino is very good, but he’s a pretty ‘out-there’ kind of guy, and in some cases, that’s good. Maybe it wasn’t good here.”
Mr. Trump’s comments come after it was reported that Mr. Bovino and some of his agents were expected to leave Minneapolis on Tuesday and return to their jurisdictions, following the shooting death Saturday of a protester by federal agents.
The Department of Homeland Security also suspended Mr. Bovino’s access to his social media accounts after he spent the weekend fighting online with lawmakers and critics about his tactics in Minnesota. Mr. Bovino also lost his commander title.
On Monday, Mr. Trump dispatched border czar Tom Homan to Minneapolis, where he is expected to oversee the Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in the city.
Mr. Trump also expressed sympathy for the deaths of two protesters fatally shot by ICE agents, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, saying “the whole thing is terrible.”
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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