Donald Trump’s favorite trench-coated immigration enforcer, Gregory Bovino, got humiliated on live TV this week, forced to defend what California Gov. Gavin Newsom called “SS garb” purchased on eBay. Bovino, the 55-year-old Border Patrol commander and face of Trump’s second-term immigration crackdown, had to sit through the clip during an appearance on NewsNation, visibly grimacing as Newsom likened his calf-length green coat to a secret police uniform.
Newsom didn’t mince words. “Dressed up as if he literally went on eBay and purchased SS garb… secret police, private army, masked men, people disappearing… no due process,” he sneered.
Host Leland Vittert tried to save face, assuring Bovino the coat “looked like it wasn’t something you could find on eBay,” but Bovino, already irritated, insisted there was nothing fascist about the decades-old garment. “That coat is definitely Border Patrol-issue,” he said. “I’ve had it over 25 years. I bought that at a young age in approximately 1999.”
He also brags that he wore the same coat years ago to then-CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus’ “coronation” in Washington, D.C., and “received nothing but compliments” during the Biden administration.
The trench coat controversy isn’t just a fashion critique—it’s become an online meme tsunami. Black-and-white photos of Bovino in the coat sparked comparisons to Nazi officers, earning him nicknames like “Munchkin Himmler” and prompting Newsom to share the clip, warning that it revealed Trump’s authoritarian streak. The World Economic Forum appearance was just the latest stage for Newsom’s punchline, positioning Bovino as the literal face of Trump’s “secret police, private army” vision.
Bovino’s public image is already fraught. Under his leadership, the El Centro Sector reported the highest use-of-force rate in the Border Patrol, more than double the national average, including incidents like shooting at a moving minivan and rough takedowns. Federal judges have branded him evasive, and his praise of an ICE agent who fatally shot an unarmed protester in Minneapolis added fuel to the fire.
Despite Bovino’s smirks and insistence that he can produce photographic proof of wearing the coat “five, six years ago,” the humiliation is global. Memes are spreading, critics are calling out Trump’s authoritarian theatrics, and Bovino’s trench coat has become a symbol of the administration’s heavy-handed tactics and questionable optics.
It’s a rare moment when a Border Patrol chief, a symbol of Trump’s enforcement agenda, becomes the punchline of international ridicule—and it’s all thanks to a trench coat, some Photoshop memes, and the sharp tongue of California’s governor.
Watch the clip below: