Trump’s post-truth agenda beaten back as Americans refuse to accept ICE lies | Trump administration
“HEYour press secretary Sean Spicer gave alternative facts. Those were the words of senior White House aide Kellyanne Conway on NBC’s Meet the Press in January 2017. “Alternative facts” instantly created a template for the Donald Trump era.
So when Alex Pretti, 37, a critical care nurse, was shot and killed by federal agents in Minneapolis last Saturday, White House officials immediately began branding him a “would-be assassin” and a gun-brandishing “domestic terrorist.” But this time the tried and trusted tactic didn’t work.
In the following hours, multiple witness videos Pretti appeared to be holding only a phone in his hand when border patrol agents pushed him to the ground. They also made clear that an agent found Pretti’s gun near his waist and removed it seconds before another agent shot a restrained Pretti in the back.
Facing widespread backlash from the public, Democrats and even his own Republican party, Trump was forced into a partial retreat, distancing himself from efforts by aides such as Stephen Miller and Department of Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem to demonize Pretti and roil the leadership of immigration operations in Minneapolis.
The president’s field of reality distortion, which has promised to pay for Mexico’s border wall, claimed Covid will disappear “like a miracle,” insisted the 2020 election was stolen, and rewrote the history of the January 6 insurrection, has found its match for once. Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post warned: “Mr. President, the American people did not vote for these scenes, and you cannot continue to order them not to believe their lying eyes.”
When 37-year-old Renee Good was shot three times in her vehicle by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer in Minneapolis, White House aides had already tried to deny video evidence. By contrast, the images of Pretti’s murder were much more comprehensive, damning, and ubiquitous; This led to the rapid collapse of the official narrative.
Minnesota’s Democratic Governor Tim Walz he told reporters: “Thank God, thank God we have a video.”
Anger at ICE has spilled over into online spaces that normally avoid politics. Washington Post drew attention moderator r/catbongosOne 800,000-member subreddit featuring videos of people drumming with their cats wrote: “If you’re still even remotely supportive of Trump/ICE, you’re not welcome on this subreddit.” The post received more than 40,000 upvotes on Reddit.
Also, an old video has surfaced showing Pretti I give my last salute For a military veteran he treated in the hospital, it was an act of compassion that made the domestic terrorist claim even more implausible. And pro-gun Republicans took exception to the notion that Pretti made himself a legitimate target simply by carrying a gun.
All of these elements combined to make this a rare occasion, perhaps even a turning point, in Trump’s decade-long effort. imitating authoritarian leaders Those who prove their power by asking citizens to accept lies as truth.
Charlie SykesThe conservative broadcaster and author of How the Right Lost Its Mind said: “This was very dramatic. This was an administration that had reached the point of arrogance in its ability to distort the truth, and suddenly they came to this particular case, and what made it different was that they were telling Americans to ignore the evidence of their own eyes. That turned out to be a bridge too far for them.”
Sykes added: “Stephen Miller seems to think he can pull off the Jedi mind trick: You don’t see what you think you see; reality is completely different from what is documented here. Frankly, this has failed quite spectacularly. I’m interested in trying to understand why.”
“The murder of Renee Good and the killing of Alex Pretti broke new ground in a way that few other Trump-era stories have managed to do. They burst information bubbles and spread (whether on Reddit or rock climbing websites) and people were talking about it. It made Stephen Miller’s counterfactual completely unsustainable.”
Typically, when Trump and his allies make a claim, a Maga media machine mobilizes to flood the field and overwhelm the skeptics. But this time, social media tools, streaming and viral videos turned against them.
Rick Wilson, a co-founder of the Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump group, said: “I expected the mag influencers to go full-court and stay loyal to the administration, but they backed out of that. They bailed out pretty early in the process. It’s a very interesting moment, and it’s not good for the Trump organization.”
“I sense that they feel a great discomfort in the Force, that they think they can always control the narrative that is being conveyed through these technologies, and I know they don’t feel that today..”
Since Trump came to power in 2017, perhaps no author has been cited more often by political commentators than George Orwell, and no book has been cited more often than his dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four; It begins: “It was a bright and cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” The administration’s effort to manipulate the deaths of Good and Pretti has prompted numerous commentators to draw comparisons to the Ministry of Truth and its constant rewriting of historical records.
Laura BeersThe author of Orwell’s Ghosts: Wisdom and Warnings for the 21st Century said: “The regime is saying, ‘Don’t believe your own eyes are so Orwellian. The idea that the regime can make you see reality as it wants, rather than as it really is, is one of the most frightening themes not only of Nineteen Eighty-Four but of Animal Farm and all of Orwell’s writings. The idea that the regime can make you see reality as it wishes, not as it really is, is one of the most frightening themes of not only Nineteen Eighty-Four but of Animal Farm and all of Orwell’s writings. It’s very appropriate for the moment.”
But history professor Beers at American University In Washington, he noted that the Pretti case in Minneapolis felt different. “The thing is, people are willing to get along until they disagree. And maybe, just maybe, this is a moment where people disagree, where they say 2+2=4, and you can’t convince me otherwise. At least I hope so.”
The mobile phone has made a big difference. Walz has it. encouraged residents filming ICE agents to help build a database of atrocities committed against Minnesotans; not only as a record for posterity, but also to provide evidence for future investigations. Tragically, Pretti had her phone on when she was attacked.
Such technology did not exist when Orwell was covering the Spanish civil war and saw newspaper reports. had nothing to do with facts. Beers added: “That’s not the world we live in anymore. The availability of video has made it harder to convince people that 2+2=5 or to accept it even if they know it’s not true. This is the way the world of 2026 is quite different from the world of Nineteen Eighty-Four and 1948, when the book was written.”
What’s less certain is whether Trump’s stance on Pretti’s death represents a drastic shift or merely a temporary setback. As the week progressed, he returned to attacking Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey. promotes unfounded conspiracy theories that protesters were paid and the 2020 election was stolen. There may be a crack in his mirror world, but it is far from shattered.
reed galenaThe president of the League, a pro-democracy coalition, said he expects Trump’s lies to continue. “He can’t afford anything else,” he said. “I’m way beyond kicking and screaming; that’s the truth as an observer. He’s not capable of telling the truth. He’s given his people a lot of leashes to be crazy and say things that are clearly not true, so that’s not going to change.””
