Shortly after taking office in January 2025, President Donald Trump elevated Emil Bove, a member of his small army of criminal defense attorneys, to a high-profile position at the Department of Justice. After several months on the job, during which Bove reaffirmed his loyalty to Trump by (among other things) reportedly orchestrating the mass firing of prosecutors who tried January 6 rioters, advocating for the commission of war crimes, and chestily urging the White House to ignore court orders it did not like, Trump handed Bove another promotion—this time, to a judicial vacancy on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.
At his Senate confirmation hearing in June 2025, Bove tried playing the part of Principled, Sober Judge, distancing himself a bit from his multiple periods of services to Trump’s personal and political agenda. He touted his “deep respect for the rule of law,” and expressed outrage that anyone would dare cast his Department of Justice tenure as an audition, or his Third Circuit nomination as a reward for his fealty.
“There is a wildly inaccurate caricature of me in the mainstream media,” Bove said. “I am not anybody’s henchman. I’m not an enforcer.” (In politics, feeling compelled to publicly reassure lawmakers of things like “I am not anybody’s henchman” is a classic sign that you are a normal guy whom no one needs to worry about.)
In a development I am sure will astonish you, new reporting from The New York Times suggests that, if anything, Bove is even more of a replacement-level Trump acolyte than his track record would suggest. According to the Times, not long after the Republican-controlled Senate confirmed Bove, another Third Circuit judge was “surprised” to notice that the background image on Bove’s iPhone was not a photo of his family, or a beloved pet, or a favorite vacation spot. Nor was it one of those dynamic iOS wallpapers that change with the weather. Instead, it looked something like this:
That, of course, is one of the famous photos of Trump pumping his fist after a failed assassination attempt in July 2024—an image the president and his supporters quickly repurposed to sell garish crimson watches, bootleg T-shirts, and (I swear this is real) a $199-a-bottle cologne “inspired by Trump’s relentless drive” and marketed to “Patriots who never back down.” Evidently, this moment in his former (?) client’s life was so special to Bove that he wanted to be reminded of it every time he took out his phone to open the X app.
The Times report, which is roughly pegged to the one-year anniversary of Bove’s confirmation, is framed around what it calls a “central question” about him: whether Bove’s “loyalty to the president might override his commitment to the rule of law.” At the time, the iPhone incident “surprised” the Third Circuit judge who spotted the wallpaper, and apparently “caused discomfort” among the rest of them. Given that he made headlines shortly thereafter for attending a characteristically racist Trump rally, his unnerving choice of lock screen is hardly the only sign that Bove, despite his assertions during his confirmation hearing, remains an obedient stooge who understands that his job is to do what his benefactor wants.
Judge Emil Bove is at President Trump’s Pennsylvania event tonight—an unusual move for a federal judge.
When asked by MS NOW off camera why he is here, he responded: “Just here as a citizen coming to watch the president speak.” pic.twitter.com/xmLDt0pBRR
— Vaughn Hillyard (@VaughnHillyard) December 9, 2025
I do, however, think that this might be the most revealing anecdote about just how seriously Bove takes his responsibility. Set aside, for today, the question of whether it is “appropriate” for an ostensibly independent federal judge to feel so passionately about the president who appointed him that he plasters the president’s grim visage across a little screen he carries with him everywhere he goes. Instead, think about people in your life who might be inclined to use a photo of Donald Trump in this manner. Are they normal, reasonable people whom you would describe as functioning adults with a firm grip on reality? Or are they Facebook-brained MAGA dead-enders who believe that brown people wielding counterfeit ballots conspired with Joe Biden to steal the 2020 election, and that January 6 rioters are American heroes for their efforts to stop it?
As I have written before, Democrats have plenty of reasons to impeach Bove next time they take control of Congress. Being the sort of guy who uses a picture of Donald Trump as his iPhone wallpaper is not the most important one. But it can absolutely go on the list.
