Gregory Bovino, pictured here in the forefront, is the head of the U.S. Border Patrol and supposedly the “commander-at-large” of the Trump regime’s paramilitary death squad, ICE. He reports directly to the Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, best known for shooting a puppy in the face.

Many are noting Bovino’s undeniable aesthetic. He added a leather cross-body strap in yesterday’s press briefing, sending an obvious signal about his political leanings. He was in charge of the Trump regime’s “Operation Midway Blitz,” another obvious dog whistle and mockery.

We can laugh this all off as cosplay, but this would be making a grave mistake. Fascists have historically used these kinds of costumes to project an air of authoritarian intimidation on to the public. When it is accompanied by violence, which we have seen plenty of from this regime, it can have a chilling affect. And it plays into a subconscious fetishism of sadism and submission. This kind of presentation is a portent of a very dangerous time ahead.

Right now, the Trump regime is carrying out a brutal assault on immigrants, people of colour and Indigenous Oglala Sioux in Minnesota. It has literally murdered people, either by strangulation, shooting, or neglect of medical needs. It is breaking down doors to homes, dragging half naked old men out into the freezing cold, and using 5 year old children as bait to abduct entire families. And it is rapidly adding more thugs to its death squads while it constructs concentration camps at record speed.

This aesthetic isn’t cosplay. It is the very emblem of the fascist terror they wish to emulate.

Kenn Maurice Orfanos, January 2026