Trump says government will ‘de-escalate a little bit’ in Minnesota after Pretti shooting

President Donald Trump said his administration would “de-escalate some of the tension” following the second fatal shooting of a U.S. citizen by federal immigration officers in Minnesota.

“The bottom line was it was terrible. They were both terrible,” he said in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday.

In early January, Renee Good was fatally shot by an immigration officer, followed by Alex Pretti, who was killed after being stopped by border agents last weekend.

Pretti’s death reignited local protests and public outcry across the country and drew criticism from lawmakers in both parties. Trump’s remarks are the latest sign that his administration is backtracking on its operations in Minnesota.

On Monday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) withdrew the Minnesota mission’s leader and puppet, Border Patrol agent Gregory Bovino, from the state.

DHS said the White House’s border czar, Tom Homan, has been tapped to take over and Homan is set to meet with local officials this week. On Tuesday, Homan announced on social media that he had met with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and local law enforcement officials.

Speaking to other reporters before a rally in Iowa on Tuesday night, Trump said he viewed the killing of Pretti, an intensive care nurse at a veterans’ hospital, as “a very unfortunate incident.”

Asked by reporters whether he agreed with Pretti’s characterization of him as a “domestic terrorist,” Trump said, “I haven’t heard that.”

Trump later added: “He shouldn’t have been carrying a gun.”

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Pretti was shot because he was “brandishing” his gun during the confrontation, but local officials said the gun was legally registered and Pretti was shot after the firearm was removed.

DHS also said agents opened fire in self-defense after Pretti resisted attempts to disarm him. However, eyewitnesses and local officials disputed this statement, saying that he was holding a phone, not a gun.

In a statement immediately following the attack, Noem accused Pretti of “domestic terrorism,” saying, “He wasn’t there to peacefully protest, he was there to continue the violence.” he said.

Pretti’s death, which came two weeks after 37-year-old Renee Good was fatally shot, outraged local residents and led to new calls from state and city officials for the Trump administration to remove 3,000 immigration officers and officers from the area.

In an interview with Fox News, Trump appeared to defend the Minnesota operation, saying “we’ve moved thousands of hardened criminals out of the state, so the crime numbers are good.”

“Everything is going well, Tom Homan is there now,” he said, adding that the administration would “de-escalate tensions.”

Stephen Miller, a senior White House aide working on the administration’s deportation effort, told CNN that the White House “has provided clear guidance to DHS that the extra personnel sent to Minnesota for force protection should be used to conduct fugitive operations to create a physical barrier between arrest teams and separatists.”

“We are evaluating the reason” [US Customs and Border Patrol] The team may not have been following this protocol,” Miller said in a statement to CNN.

Some Republican leaders and lawmakers, including Vermont Gov. Phil Scott and U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, have called for an investigation into Pretti’s death.

“The nation witnessed a horrific situation this weekend,” Ricketts wrote on X. While confirming that his “support for ICE funding remains the same,” Ricketts said he expects “a prioritized, transparent investigation into this incident.”

A federal judge blocked DHS from destroying or altering the evidence.

In his speech at the Iowa rally Tuesday night, devoted to economic policies, Trump did not discuss the current situation in Minnesota in depth, but spoke more broadly about his crackdown on immigrants, citing a December Harvard Harris poll that suggested 80% of Americans support his administration’s efforts to deport illegal immigrants who commit crimes.