Trump’s playbook falters in crisis response to Minneapolis shooting
For the second time this month, the Trump administration blamed the victim and called the late Alex Jeffrey Pretti an “assassin” and “domestic terrorist” within hours of the killing of an American citizen by immigration officers in Minnesota without launching an independent investigation.
The crisis response by President Trump’s top Homeland Security officials followed the familiar playbook of an administration willing to display courage and determination, especially on immigration, in the face of inconvenient truths. Despite their efforts, the damage from the incident continued Sunday, creating political danger for the president.
The videos that emerged about Pretti’s murder angered the public. Government lines justifying the use of deadly force have sparked backlash among staunch Republican supporters and conservative groups. Negotiations in Congress to prevent another shutdown have been upended by Immigration and Customs Enforcement funding. And a Trump-appointed judge blocked the administration’s attempt to destroy evidence in the case, fueling fears of a cover-up.
This is new territory for Trump, whose handling of immigration has been a rare bright spot in his job performance survey during his first year back in office. Now, for the first time, polls show that a majority of Americans disapprove of the administration’s enforcement tactics; One in three Republicans express concern that they are being too harsh.
Pretti, 37, an intensive care nurse at a hospital for veterans in Minneapolis, was shot 10 times at close range by two ICE agents. Multiple videos of the incident show Pretti trying to help a fellow civilian who was pushed by an ICE officer before he was also tackled to the ground by agents.
He was carrying a firearm that Minneapolis police said was legally purchased and registered. Videos circulating on social media do not show him brandishing a gun or trying to reach for a gun, although Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem accused Pretti of attending the protest with the intent to commit violence.
Bill Essayli, an assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, warned that approaching law enforcement while armed “there’s a good chance they’ll be found legally justified to shoot you.” But the administration’s decision to attribute Pretti’s death to his decision to carry a gun sparked a harsh reaction from 2nd Amendment advocates in the Republican Party.
“Responsible public voices should not make generalizations and demonize law-abiding citizens, but should await a full investigation,” said the National Rifle Assn. he said in a statement.
Prominent conservative commentator Erick Erickson accused Noem and Trump’s U.S. Border Patrol chief, Greg Bovino, of “making things much worse by remaining unrestrained in the way they proceeded.”
Erickson wrote of X: “The President is a great marketer and public relations expert.” “While those around him may not realize it, I’m pretty sure his team’s rush to undermine Second Amendment claims and describe the dead man as a bad looker with many facts still unknown makes sense of another dead American.”
The top adviser to the Department of Homeland Security during Trump’s first term said he was “outraged and embarrassed” by the agency’s “lawlessness, fascism, and cruelty” and called for the president’s impeachment and removal from office.
“People are fed up,” Minneapolis police chief Brian O’Hara told CBS News’ “Face the Nation.” “The Minneapolis Police Department last year took nearly 900 guns off the street all year long, arrested hundreds of violent criminals, and we didn’t shoot anyone. And now this is the second American citizen killed, this is the third shooting in three weeks.”
Earlier this month, Renee Nicole Good, also a 37-year-old mother of three, was shot and killed by an ICE agent while driving shortly after dropping her son off at school. Just like in the Pretti case, Noem and other senior administration officials justified the incident within hours of her death by denying the victim’s motives without providing any concrete evidence.
The aggressive response came as the administration faced accusations that it had misrepresented other facts to the public.
After the president confused Greenland with the quad-separate island nation of Iceland in a speech last week in Switzerland, Trump press secretary Karoline Leavitt said: expressly rejected He had made the mess.
And on the same trip, Trump dismissed the role of NATO allies in the war in Afghanistan, where NATO allies lost more than 1,000 troops during the war, claiming they were “staying a little bit behind, a little bit away from the front lines.” The remarks infuriated some of Washington’s closest allies.
But when Noem was questioned by a conservative reporter on Fox News about the circumstances surrounding Pretti’s death, she suggested the mistake might have been a mistake.
“This happened in a matter of seconds,” Noem said, asking whether Pretti was shot and killed after being disarmed with a gun he did not initially brandish. “They clearly feared for their lives and took action to defend themselves.”
