Donald Trump acknowledged Tuesday that his personnel shake-up in Minneapolis after federal agents killed two citizens earlier this month is a de-escalation.
Trump, who is usually averse to such admissions, was questioned on Fox News about the removal of top border patrol official Gregory Bovino, and how border czar Tom Homan would be managing Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in the city instead.
“We have Tom Homan there now. We put him in there, he’s great,” Trump, 79, told host Will Cain during a midterms campaign stop in Urbandale, Iowa. “And they met with the governor and the mayor and everybody else. And we’re going to de-escalate a little bit.”
Tensions on the ground in Minneapolis were already high before the killing on Saturday of ICU nurse Alex Pretti; earlier this month, an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good.
Now, ICE and Border Patrol agents there are reportedly turning against the operation.
“This is a no-win situation for agents on the ground or immigration enforcement overall,” one Border Patrol agent wrote in a private chat, according to journalist Ken Klippenstein. “I think it’s time to pull out of Minnesota, that battle is lost.”
Meanwhile, the drama inside the Trump administration has centered on Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who worked closely with Bovino. Trump’s immigration czar, Stephen Miller, and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles have turned against her, the Daily Beast reported on Monday.
Noem met with Trump in the Oval Office for nearly two hours later that night. Her job is reportedly at risk, as is aide—and rumored lover—Corey Lewandowski’s.
Trump’s de-escalation of immigration enforcement activities in Minneapolis also comes amid more bad polls on the topic.
Americans generally are not falling for White House figures’ baseless claims about the circumstances of Pretti’s death, one found, while another revealed Trump was at his lowest level of support on immigration as a whole.
Also, editorial boards of The Wall Street Journal and The New York Post have come out against the current ICE strategy in Minneapolis, as have some Fox News hosts.
