It can be hard to regain footing after losing a job. It’s a reality many Americans have been forced to face under Donald Trump’s authoritarian rule and in the wretched economy he’s created. And it would seem former U.S. Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino can relate.

That might explain Bovino’s desperate search for relevance since the far-right former immigration official, who promoted neo-Nazi propaganda and faced accusations of cosplaying as a Nazi during his stint leading Trump’s racist immigration crackdown, was ousted from his role as the Border Patrol’s “commander at large” in January. (Bovino has denied intending to convey Nazi ideology.)

Since his ouster, Bovino has tried to keep himself in the limelight — an effort that includes his recent attendance at a pro-extremist, Nazi-aligned conference in Portugal, and one that appears to be fueling Bovino’s consideration of a presidential bid. 

At least he said he’s exploring a 2028 bid in a social media post on Monday. That the post includes the phrase “men fight back” suggests Bovino’s potential bid is likely to be rooted in the cringeworthy masculinity rhetoric we’ve heard out of the MAGA movement over the past few years in particular. 

NewsNation is reporting I’m exploring a run for President in 2028.

Here’s the truth: My one and only priority is deporting the 106 million illegals who are here. That’s it.

The grassroots support I’m seeing tells me the polls are completely wrong…

If I’m getting this much… https://t.co/L0bttQYgEG

— Gregory K Bovino (@GregoryKBovino) June 8, 2026

Bovino seems to be carving a lane for himself to emerge as a stalwart of the furthest-right fringe of the MAGA movement. At the conference in Portugal, he attacked the Trump administration for purportedly not being extreme enough in its mass deportation agenda and made the same baseless claim he made in the tweet above: that there are at least 100 million undocumented immigrants in the United States. To be clear, this would mean about one-third of all U.S. residents are undocumented, which is a fanciful assertion. 

What’s not clear is whether there’s much of a constituency for a Bovino presidential bid, even among the MAGA movement. His mass deportation proposals align with beliefs espoused by the far-right “Mass Deportation Coalition,” a group of right-wing organizations that want Trump to ramp up his assault on immigrants. But Bovino’s rhetoric and tactics are arguably a key reason why polls at the start of the year showed a majority of Americans believed the Trump administration’s anti-immigration strategy had gone too far. And as my colleague Steve Benen noted in January, Bovino racked up a list of scandals and controversies so long during his time as border chief that even Trump was forced to admit he’s a “pretty out-there kind of guy,” seemingly alluding to his extremist tendencies. 

But if there’s anything to take away from Bovino’s floating of a presidential bid, it’s that he’s among a list of conservatives jockeying to lead the MAGA movement after Donald Trump is no longer president.

The post After attending pro-Nazi conference, Bovino floats presidential bid appeared first on MS NOW.

White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller faced a torrent of right-wing backlash over the weekend amid his push for the federal government to obtain virtually unfettered powers to spy on Americans.

The Trump administration has been pressuring Congress to authorize a long-term extension of the spying program known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. It’s a controversial program that has allowed the government to collect Americans’ communications with targeted people and entities abroad.

Multiple Republicans in Congress had already sided with Democrats in raising concerns about reauthorizing these spying powers. And Donald Trump’s nomination of Bill Pulte — a MAGA loyalist who has launched dubious probes into the president’s political opponents while leading the Federal Housing Finance Agency — has put a reauthorization of Section 702 further in doubt.

That’s the context for Miller’s post on X below, in which he peddled falsehoods about the spying program.

“FISA 702 is the authority for surveillance on foreign soil — the core of all US security,” Miller wrote. “A libertarian demand to make SecWar get approval from liberal DC judges (the ones who targeted Trump) is madness. No conservative aim is ever served through subservience to leftist DC judges.”

FISA 702 is the authority for surveillance on foreign soil—the core of all US security. A libertarian demand to make SecWar get approval from liberal DC judges (the ones who targeted Trump) is madness. No conservative aim is ever served through subservience to leftist DC judges.

— Stephen Miller (@StephenM) June 6, 2026

As you can see, Miller’s claim about liberal judges on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court was hit with a community note after X users noted that the judges come from across the country, and that all but three of the 11 judges were appointed by Republicans.

And while some of the outrage toward Miller naturally came from liberals, some conservatives didn’t seem all that happy either.

Love this community note. Stephen Miller trying to gaslight the American people.

This Trump administration hasn’t done a dag on thing about the weaponization of government and now they want to extend FISA so the government can spy on Americans without a warrant. https://t.co/NOb2wmLze9 pic.twitter.com/5nOKOmnY1R

— Derrick Evans (@DerrickEvans4WV) June 7, 2026

Get a warrant. Tyrant. https://t.co/JH1pcvDiiF

— Libertarian Party of Tennessee (@LPTN1776) June 6, 2026

“If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary,” Federalist 51. At least Trump's elevation of Bill Pulte to head the spy apparatus reminds us that governance by angels is nowhere on the horizon.https://t.co/7b917BRByv https://t.co/Oejf2ZFnk0

— Jason Willick (@jawillick) June 6, 2026

The MAGA backlash over the White House’s push to reauthorize Section 702 boils down to a point I made on MS NOW’s “Morning Joe” last week, in which I talked about the electoral backlash to Big Tech. As I mentioned, the fact that artificial intelligence skeptics span the ideological spectrum — with people as ideologically diverse as Steve Bannon and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. — shows how even allies of the MAGA movement are wary of the ways Big Tech can infringe upon American life.

And it almost goes without saying that dismissive statements from Miller aren’t likely to assuage many folks’ concerns.

Check out my segment alongside Jonathan Lemire, Molly Jong-Fast and Sam Stein here:

The post Stephen Miller’s push for spy powers faces right-wing backlash appeared first on MS NOW.

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