Every dictatorship – whether we call it “fascist” or not – develops certain forms of organized terror. No dictator can rule without a men’s alliance, paramilitary and law-free organization for the public, even performative exercise of violence.
The “tasks” of such terrorist paramilitaries, in addition to those of a political (or “religious”) police force, are a constant manhunt, the murder of real or imagined “traitors” and the guarding of the dictator’s palace as his private army. In general, however, it is about the spread of fear and terror. A dictatorship tends to use the energies of madness and crime in a society at its own service.
Each of these terrorist organizations of the dictatorship has two enemy bodies, namely, on the one hand, all opponents of the regime – the “hard” enemy image – and on the other hand, a group that at first glance appears arbitrary and is assumed to have some kind of toxic effect: the Jews, the infidels, the migrants – the “soft” enemy image. If you look at the victims of the ICE actions, they correspond to a “soft” enemy image. There are children, there are women, there are people who are more likely to stand out because of their fearful than aggressive behavior.
One can probably assume: the bloodhounds of the men’s alliance are specifically targeting weak victims. Her Violence is arbitrary But it is no coincidence that their victims are not drug gangsters or resistance fighters, but civilian, peaceful and unsuspecting fellow human beings.
Narcissism and authoritarianism
At the top of such organizations are characters who exhibit certain characteristics in varying mixtures: sadism, paranoia, narcissism and authoritarianism. You can initially think of them as “bloodhounds”; Hunting people is as integral to their nature as dominating their pack. Her own body is the material of a narcissistic self-dramatization: painless, cold, armored, compassionless. In addition to a demonstration of power, their appearance always has aspects of psychosexual cosplay.
Gregory Bovino, who until recently commanded both Border Control and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), is a model of this type. He has had a career that can only be achieved in the shadow of a dictator. He has been with the border authority since 1996; became assistant chief of the Border Patrol in Yuma, Arizona, under Trump Administration I, and quickly moved into the inner circle of the MAGA “mass deportation” movement under Trump II.
In June 2025, he led ICE operations in Los Angeles, then he commanded Operation Midway Blitz in Chicago, and then he was promoted commander-at-large Nothing stands in the way of the Border Patrol, not even though, but precisely because he also becomes one A nightmare for liberal and democratic America had become.
What was crucial for this rise was that he was not only the leader, but also always the “face” of these actions. A media star who was even helped by being seen by many as the ideal villain actor. And this face changed from mission to mission, from a patriotic, pragmatic professional who was “just doing his job” to a comic-like mini-dictator in Nazi-chic garb.
Obsessed with boundaries
Coming from a very broken Italian-American family, Gregory Bovino was obsessed with borders and guards from childhood and, according to his own statements, never wanted to be anything other than one of the guys who guard the US border and defend it against the “scum” that was constantly threatening to stream in from outside. He eventually developed an operational tactic of perfidious trapping under the cynical name “Return to Sender,” which was recognized as illegal during Joe Biden’s presidency and which made him appear all the more useful to the Trump administration.
Bovino loves to act like an SS man in a trash film: the coat he has on is a variation of the German Wehrmacht’s M40 coat. (On occasion, one could think about the role of the coat in dictatorial men, in Josef Stalin as well as in Donald Trump.) Under this field green coat, Bovino is usually dressed in olive green or sometimes black, and the men who always surround him like a personal body guard are also hooded in black. His skull is the only one to be exposed during such – apparently extremely enjoyable – performances. He obviously considers it a special sign of his superiority.
The coat goes down to the ankles and is cut tight enough that it begs to be opened and can sometimes “blow” a little. Below we see the starched uniform shirt with the tight, narrow black tie. He is always careful to ensure that his men’s entourage resembles him in outfit, but never presents the same number of military semantics on their bodies. You never see a woman or a person of color in Bovino’s entourage.
When he can’t show off his obviously beloved coat, Gregory Bovino likes to sport a classic shoulder strap with a flashing buckle. Associations have been found with the Sam Browne belt, which takes its name from the British general Samuel James Browne, who lost his left arm to a saber blow in India in 1858 and later made do with the shoulder strap because he was still far from tired of pulling sabers. In the last century, this shoulder strap became part of military glamour. It doesn’t have to have any practical meaning, it should only distinguish the wearer as an unyielding fighter who sticks together.
A fantasy uniform
Compared to his role model, Bovino wears the obscenely useless shoulder strap on the wrong side. An interpretation of his performances: The guy is so in love with his Nazi-chic production that he can’t get enough of it. Another interpretation seems deeper: Bovino publicly stages the transformation of an authority into a paramilitary, anti-constitutional and anti-democratic organization.
This means that he militarizes himself and his people at the same time, but clearly distinguishes himself from the official (constitutional) army. He obviously had a kind of masculinist fantasy uniform developed for himself and his people, including those strict, narrow ties, the closest association to fascist chic.
Gregory Bovino’s greatest pleasure is obviously going on “patrol” through the streets with his men. It’s as if you wanted to make it clear: There is this powerful man in the White House in Washington, but here on the street, we are in charge. Gregory Bovino’s second favorite thing is posing in front of crossed flags.
The martial appearance – hyper-arming and masking, for example – is part of the staging of the men’s alliance terror, like the Trumpist stretching of the skull copied from Mussolini with the “decisive” lowering of the corners of the mouth.
Really good work
Bovino is one of those MAGA characters who publicly live in their own narrative beyond reality. When CNN journalist Dana Bash presents him with the videos of Alex Pretti’s murder, his eyes go rigid and he repeats the now obvious lie about Pretti’s attack. Yes, he claims: “It was a really good job by our officials,” which in his opinion he is definitely right. The bloodhound troops of a dictatorship must prove to the people that they are above everything and cannot be prosecuted.
The relationship between dictators and their bloodhounds is always precarious. Because on the one hand, some cannot exist without the others, on the other hand, they have to fear each other. The dictators must fear that the bloodhounds will outlive them, perhaps even murder them. We remember the spectacle of the Putin dictatorship with their “Wagner troupe”.
But the bloodhounds have to expand their own power under the eyes of the dictator, which is now primarily done through economic security. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard has so much economic power, both through legal ownership and through extortion, that it could survive, if not bring about, the overthrow of the mullahs’ regime.
So now Donald Trump is whistling back at Gregory Bovino. Bovino’s “successor” is Tom Homan, who uses a less glamorous appearance, but is at least as radical when it comes to the matter – the great “cleansing” of the USA and the militant isolation from the outside. Semantics also seem to dictate the direction for him. He is the “Border Czar” who promises national rebirth from mass deportation. But that is another chapter in the history of the US dictatorship.