Did Trump Just Screw Himself Over on the Minnesota ICE Case?

The president’s social media addiction may have just cost him another court case.

In a post on Truth Social Wednesday morning, Donald Trump openly attempted to sway Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey into fulfilling his immigration agenda, a blatant violation of the Tenth Amendment.

“Surprisingly, Mayor Jacob Frey just stated that, ‘Minneapolis does not, and will not, enforce Federal Immigration Laws,’” Trump wrote. “This is after having had a very good conversation with him. Could somebody in his inner sanctum please explain that this statement is a very serious violation of the Law, and that he is PLAYING WITH FIRE!”

The problem for Trump’s bloviating is twofold. Not only is Minnesota—or any state, for that matter—not required to enforce federal law under the “anti-commandeering doctrine” of the Tenth Amendment, but his insistence that the North Star State do so effectively spells out that he’s attempting to strong-arm Minnesota into changing its local policies.

Legal reporters noted that detail alone could prove disastrous for Trump’s side in Minnesota’s federal lawsuit, which requests a temporary restraining order to end Operation Metro Surge. Officials have described ICE’s presence as an “unprecedented surge of DHS agents into the state.”

“Trump could not have designed a better statement to convince Judge Menendez that Operation Metro Surge is meant to coerce policy changes,” posted Politico’s Kyle Cheney. “And the menacing ‘playing with fire’ is exactly the kind of statement (‘retribution is coming’) that worked against the administration in court earlier this week.”

The Supreme Court has ruled several times that states cannot be forced to enact federal policy and that the federal government cannot sway state policy, setting national precedent in rulings such as Printz v. United States (1997) and New York v. United States (1992).

In just a few short weeks, Operation Metro Surge has conducted militarized raids across Minnesota, terrorizing residents while carrying out what state officials have described as “dangerous, illegal, and unconstitutional stops and arrests, all under the guise of lawful immigration enforcement.”

The federal presence has also claimed the lives of two U.S. citizens. In the last month, agents with ICE and Customs and Border Protection shot and killed two U.S. citizens: Veterans Affairs ICU nurse Alex Pretti and award-winning poet Renee Nicole Good.

In 2025, the agency killed 32 people—its deadliest year in more than two decades.