The White House’s shocking lies about Minneapolis

Minneapolis residents and anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protestors can claim at least a partial victory after weeks of protest, confrontation, and violence in Minnesota. The Trump administration is scaling back its immigration enforcement surge in the region, after bipartisan outrage and criticism over a second ICE killing of an American citizen last weekend.

This scrutiny — and the resilience of demonstrators in Minnesota — seem to have finally forced President Donald Trump to waver and pushed the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) into a partial retreat. The administration announced a draw down of some of the DHS presence in the Twin Cities; moved in a different liaison to handle immigration enforcement; and reassigned “commander-at-large” Gregory Bovino, the most visible face of the administration’s blue-city surges. 

The futures of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and the White House’s immigration strategist Stephen Miller, meanwhile, remain in question.

But all these moves shouldn’t mask an uncontestable fact: These officials, and the broader Trump administration, have still been blatantly misleading the public for weeks about Minneapolis and the two 37-year-olds, Alex Pretti and Nicole Renee Good, killed this month.

Pretti’s killing, and the unabashed vilification from administration officials, is the most cut and dry example. His family, neighbors, former colleagues, and friends have decried the utter shamelessness of DHS’s characterization of Pretti. 

The White House itself now appears to be walking back some of the administration’s previous commentary. Asked this week if Trump agrees with his deputies that Pretti was a “domestic terrorist,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt said she had “not heard the president characterize Mr Pretti in that way,” while Trump himself said he did not agree.

But even before Pretti’s killing, the administration was bending the truth and pushing contradictory narratives about how ICE and Customs and Border Protection operate — denying what videos seemed to show and witnesses reported in testimony.

So, while there appear to be some consequences for some officials, that doesn’t change the fact that the federal government has egregiously misled the public.

The Trump administration’s mistruths on Alex Pretti are clear cut

Video evidence has been crucial to both of these ICE killings, and we’ve seen a lot of it — of the actual shooting and of the lead-up to it. None of this has stopped the federal government and its spokespeople from spinning a contradictory narrative.

Federal officials:

1. Claimed that Pretti “attacked” agents and instigated an altercation (Noem, FBI Director Kash Patel, and Bovino). No footage shows Pretti attacking officers or interfering with the original work of agents.
2. Characterized Pretti as a “domestic terrorist” and his actions as “domestic terrorism” (Noem, Stephen Miller, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin). His actions don’t meet Noem’s own definition, which is “when you perpetuate violence against a government because of ideological reasons and for reasons to resist and perpetuate violence.”
3. Claimed Pretti was “brandishing” a gun or “approached” officers “with” a gun (Noem, Bovino). Videos show he was holding a cellphone in one hand while his other hand was empty.
4. Claimed Pretti reacted “violently” when they attempted to disarm him, and “defensive” shots were fired (Bovino). Video shows Pretti was unarmed when he was shot and did not react “violently.”
5. Claimed Pretti was an “assassin” looking to “murder federal agents,” “inflict harm,” or “do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement” (Miller, Bovino, Noem). None of this is true based on the evidence we have now, and the administration has presented no proof of this motive, except that he had a firearm and ammunition on his body.
6. Suggested Pretti broke the law by having a firearm on him, or that it was inappropriate for him to have a firearm at a protest (Patel, Noem, Trump). Pretti had a permit to carry the gun, and it was legal for him to carry it in public in Minnesota.

Renee Good’s killing was also twisted into a pro-ICE narrative

Just as in Pretti’s case, we have a score of video angles we can look at to determine what happened. The administration was more willing to send out surrogates and push out a counter-narrative of self-defence, given the involvement of a car. Plenty of videos, however, also contradicted what the administration claimed.

Officials:

1. Argued that Good tried to ram her car into an ICE agent. Multiple video analyses show that she was turning her wheel away from officers, who surrounded her. 
2. Characterized Good as trying to commit “an act of domestic terrorism” (Noem).
3. Said Good “violently, willfully, and viciously ran over” an ICE officer (Trump). The officer who shot and killed her was not run over, and no evidence has been presented that she “willfully” sought to hurt the officer.
4. Described her as “very violent,” “very radical,” and “brainwashed.”

Beyond these specific cases, DHS and the agencies carrying out Trump’s deportation agenda already faced a credibility crisis — downplaying the violence and aggressive tactics employed by agents and officers; walking back claims about specific enforcement actions; and smearing or demeaning reporters, public officials, or activists who criticize the administration. 

The now-demoted Bovino, for example, was reprimanded by a federal judge last year for lying to her about being hit with a rock in a Chicago neighborhood when explaining the justification he had for throwing a tear gas canister at protestors. 

Bovino “ultimately admitted he was not hit until after he threw the tear gas,” US District Judge Sara Ellis said back in November. 

Ellis went on to say the incident “calls into question everything that defendants say they are doing…during law enforcement activities.”