MAGA podcaster Tim Pool has called out President Donald Trump in the fallout of the second fatal shooting of a U.S. citizen by Department of Homeland Security federal officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in less than three weeks.
The Culture War podcast host and longtime Trump suck-up has questioned the Trump administration’s narrative surrounding the killing of ICU nurse Alex Jeffrey Pretti, 37, arguing that Trump is “weak” in the face of the ensuing chaos that is gripping the Twin Cities.
“Empty hand, then gun in hand,” Pool wrote, commenting on slowed footage in the seconds surrounding Pretti’s shooting. “Appears the man may have been disarmed before being shot.”
“This is a chain of events in a greater conflict. Neither side cares at this point what justifies it or doesn’t.
“I don’t see Trump winning this one,” Pool concluded.
Pool, 39, heads his own independent media group, Timcast, and has some 2.5 million followers on X. His podcast covers right-wing talking points and conspiracy theories, and has hosted white supremacist Nick Fuentes and alt-right figure Milo Yiannopoulos.
DHS has said that the agents involved in the shooting acted in self-defence after the “armed suspect violently resisted.”
“Fearing for his life and the lives and safety of fellow officers, an agent fired defensive shots,” the department wrote in an official statement.
“The suspect also had 2 magazines and no ID—this looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement."
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a press conference that she agrees with the White House’s statement that Pretti was a “domestic terrorist.”
“This individual... committed an act of domestic terrorism. That’s the facts,” Noem argued.
Similar statements have been made by Trump’s closest political allies—including Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, who branded Pretti an “assassin”—as the administration closes ranks to unify on its messaging.
Pool appears not to be buying any of it, although he has not entirely flipped sides. In a separate tweet, the commentator argued that those impeding the work of “federal agents dispatched by a duly elected government” are “fascists.”
“Trump should personally go to Minneapolis and force the whole thing to shut down, no more fighting, no more partisan conflict,” Pool argued.
“Trump isn’t Lincoln, he’s Buchanan.”
President James Buchanan is frequently cited as the worst leader in U.S. history. The 15th president, serving from 1857 to 1861, failed to stop the country from tearing itself apart, leading to the Civil War.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has also spurned the official White House narrative surrounding the events in his state’s capital, branding them “nonsense” and “lies.”
Pretti’s own parents have said that the Trump administration is spreading “sickening lies” about their deceased son that are “reprehensible and disgusting.”
Video analysis from news networks, including CNN and Bellingcat, has concluded that federal officers took the gun from the licensed firearm holder Pretti before shooting him at least 10 times while he was on the ground.
Protests have engulfed Minnesota since the fatal shooting of 37-year-old mother of three, Renee Good, who was also killed by federal agents, not far from where today’s shooting took place.
The National Guard of Minnesota has been activated in Minneapolis as authorities work to ensure the ongoing protests remain peaceful.
