Did Trump Even Watch Minnesota ICE Shooting Video Before Responding?

Did President Donald Trump even watch a video of the ICE shooting in Minnesota before he started spreading lies about the victim?

Speaking to a group of New York Times reporters Wednesday, Trump claimed that Renee Good, a driver who was shot and killed by a federal immigration agent, “didn’t try to run him over. She ran him over.” 

To make his point, Trump trotted out a video he’d already shared to Truth Social earlier that day. The video, taken from a distance, was slowed down to isolate the sound of three gunshots, audible above a witness screaming, “No!” 

The video, however, did not appear to show a federal officer being run over or injured in any way. But in his post, Trump had inexplicably claimed that it was “hard to believe [the officer] is alive” after the incident.

The reporters quickly pointed out that Trump’s cherry-picked video didn’t even support his own fictitious claims. 

“Well,” Trump stammered. “I—the way I look at it …” It seems he could not summon an explanation as he watched the footage he’d boosted to millions of people.  

“It’s a terrible scene,” he said at the end of the video. “I think it’s horrible to watch. No, I hate to see it.”

Trump’s reaction “suggests that no one had shown the video to Trump before he posted about the shooting,” Aaron Reichlin-Melchick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, wrote in a post on X Thursday.

The video Trump posted, which went on to be shared by other prominent right-wing figures, did not include footage of moments before the shooting when Good, who was blocking traffic, waved the agents by and urged them to “go around!” 

Instead of pulling around, the ICE agents swarmed her vehicle, pulling on the doors, and demanding she “get out of the fucking car!” One witness even said that another officer ordered her to leave. When she attempted to drive away from the group of officers, the officer standing in front of the vehicle shot her in the head at least three times. 

Trump’s video also did not include footage of ICE agents dismissing a man who identified himself as a physician and asked to check Good’s pulse as she sat motionless in her crashed vehicle.