Garry Kasparov’s startling warning to America: ‘I saw Putin’s rise first-hand and Trump is using the same playbook… he’s passed the point when he feels he can afford to lose power. It’s a perilous moment’

Garry Kasparov has issued a startling warning to America, comparing Donald Trump’s tactics to maintain power with those of Vladimir Putin.

The Russian chess grandmaster, who rose to global fame by hacking the IBM supercomputer Deep Blue in the 1990s, has long been an outspoken critic of his country’s regime and briefly ran against Putin in 2008.

Kasparov, who was arrested and beaten by police in 2012, declared that ‘fascism had come to Russia’ and fled to the USA the following year.

The chess legend, now 62, directed his anger at Trump’s politics ahead of the 2016 elections, claiming that the Republican candidate had ‘authoritarian tendencies’.

And Kasparov’s opposition to the US president took another turn after Alex Pretti was fatally shot Saturday by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent conducting a targeted enforcement operation.

The grandmaster suggested that both the incident and the Trump administration’s immediate defense of it were further evidence that the president was employing methods similar to those of the government he fled in Russia.

He wrote of X: ‘Trying to predict the anger of autocrats is hopeless because their superpower is to create constant shocks to dominate the environment.’

Kasparov described the events in Minneapolis, Minnesota as ‘method, not madness’ and added: ‘Trump wants violence to radicalize and divide, to create an excuse for repression.’

The chess legend has long expressed his criticism of Trump’s politics, and previously claimed that Trump had ‘authoritarian tendencies’.

He has been an outspoken critic of the regime in his homeland for years, briefly running against Putin in 2008

Saturday’s deadly shooting sparked outrage from Americans who condemned it as excessive force by untrained federal officers. But the Trump administration says the incident was a case of an armed man inciting violence.

This incident comes just weeks after 37-year-old Renee Good was shot and killed by an ICE officer less than a mile away on January 7.

Expanding on his comparison between President Trump and Putin, Kasparov said: ‘Firstly, to claim that only he can solve the crisis (which he created), this is a typical formula. Chaos and violence are pushing people towards a “law and order” dictatorship.

‘Also, as the midterm exam approaches, the groundwork for intervention in the democratic process must be prepared for ‘security’ reasons.

‘Trump’s model is Putin’s Russia. As someone who has experienced something similar throughout the country, it is not easy to fight against this. And Trump and most of his gang are past the point where they think they can afford to lose power even in Congress. It’s a dangerous moment.

‘The normal human ability to avoid conflict is not something that autocrats have, and they exploit it. Trump is building ICE in his own image, and it is primarily a political weapon. There will be violence and possibly deaths as local law enforcement forces everyone to choose a side.

‘What happens in Minneapolis will also play out in better-selected areas and swing states. More violence, more shootings, banning of rallies, criminalization of dissent. Even if general public sentiment toward ICE is negative, the feeling of chaos often benefits the dictator.’

The chess champion’s criticism of the management did not end there. He argued that Trump and his allies are willing to take increasingly harsh steps to stay in power in the United States.

Alex Pretti, 37, was shot and killed by a Border Patrol agent during an operation against immigrants in Minneapolis on Saturday.

During Saturday’s incident, Pretti was pepper sprayed and shot by federal agents.

Quoting an article he wrote for The Atlantic in February 2025, he added: ‘These are not the actions of people who expect to lose power anytime soon, or anytime soon. They race to the point where they cannot afford to lose control of the mechanisms they have torn apart and rebuilt in their own image.

‘It is unpredictable what such people will do when they believe that staging a coup would be less of a risk to their wealth and power.’

He likened ICE to Rosgvardia, Russia’s national guard, claiming the body was “encouraged to violate the law” and then said they would only be punished if they appealed to MAGA. [Trump or his allies] loses its power’.

On Sunday, Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem maintained the administration’s staunch defense of the Pretti attack, claiming the officers “clearly feared for their lives” and opened defensive fire on the victim after he “violently” resisted.

Federal authorities claimed the intensive care unit nurse was carrying a loaded Sig Sauer P320 9mm handgun, but video taken at the scene appears to show officers disarming her before gunshots were heard.

Fox News senior White House correspondent Peter Doocy probed Noem about the protocol for using deadly force on an unarmed person, but Noem apparently dismissed his question.

‘It’s all part of this investigation. Each video will be analyzed. Everything will be looked at,” he said during an appearance on the Sunday Briefing.

‘Part of the answer is, I can’t speak to every single thing these officers were thinking, but it happened in seconds. ‘They clearly feared for their lives and took action to defend themselves and the people around them.’

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem dodged key questions about the deadly shooting, including whether she was unarmed before a Border Patrol agent killed her

Kasparov said he found the administration’s rapid defense against the shooting as worrying as the incident itself.

“Even if you can imagine mitigating factors in the killing, from “doing one’s job” to a terrible mistake, the Trump admin’s immediate and all-out defense of it and cover of lies is damning,” he wrote to X.

‘This is the standard authoritarian response, which is, above all, unquestioning loyalty.’

Towards the end of his epic 24-hour social media warning he added: ‘Are these the actions of a regime that believes it has a chance of losing power?’

For years the world’s most famous grandmaster, Kasparov has become an ardent defender of democracy and a critic of authoritarian regimes around the world.

Kasparov, who founded the United Civil Front movement and is a member of the Other Russia coalition opposing Putin, was forced to withdraw from the 2008 presidential battle due to logistical problems, which he described as ‘official obstruction’.

His political career led him to assume the chairmanship of the Human Rights Foundation between 2011 and 2014.

Kasparov later founded the Initiative to Renew Democracy in 2017, a body aimed at promoting liberal democracy worldwide, and also founded the World Freedom Congress.

Pretti, 37, can be seen filming on his phone in the street as a small group confronted a federal agent. His other hand looked empty

The chess star often invokes his experiences in Russia as he defends the values ​​of freedom and democracy, two qualities of America that, in his opinion, attracted Kasparov to America but have recently been eroded.

While Noem, a MAGA Republican, defended the actions of ICE officers this weekend, she also pointed to a bystander video in which someone yelled “gun, gun, gun” and claimed federal officers “reacted to that.”

But he did not acknowledge that it was unclear whether the statement heard on camera was a reference to Pretti’s alleged gun or a federal agent’s gun.

Noem had previously claimed that Pretti, an intensive care nurse who was protesting President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigrants in Minneapolis, came on Saturday to “obstruct a law enforcement operation.”

The DHS Secretary questioned why Pretti was armed, but did not elaborate on whether he pulled the gun or brandished it at officers.

Noem also previously blamed the attack on Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, two of Minnesota’s most senior Democratic lawmakers.

‘Our law enforcement officers are doing their best to protect the public. “We pray for the loved ones, family and friends of the deceased, but we also recognize that the governor of Minnesota and Minneapolis needs to take a long look in the mirror,” he said at a news conference on Saturday.

‘They need to evaluate their rhetoric, their speech, their encouragement of this type of violence against our citizens and law enforcement.’

Federal authorities allege intensive care unit nurse was carrying this loaded Sig Sauer P320 9mm pistol

Minneapolis police said Pretti had no serious criminal history and was a legal gun owner with a valid permit.

Videos after Pretti was disarmed do not clearly show where the first shot came from, but a weapons expert said he believed Pretti’s Sig Sauer P320 exploded in one agent’s hand, prompting another agent to open fire.

Multiple eyewitness videos show a Border Patrol agent shooting and killing Pretti after a fight of about 30 seconds around 9 a.m. Saturday.

The videos appear to contradict statements from DHS, which said the shots were fired ‘defensively’ because Pretti was ‘approaching’ Pretti with a gun.

In the videos, Pretti can be seen holding only a phone. None of the footage shows him with a gun.

During the struggle, agents noticed the man was carrying a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun and fired several shots.

Federal officials did not identify the agent but confirmed that the officer who shot Pretti was an eight-year Border Patrol veteran.