We are being told by the Trump administration that an intensive care nurse, Alex Jeffrey Pretti, and a mom of three, Renee Nicole Good, both gunned down by ICE agents in Minnesota, are a new breed of homegrown terrorist. You can see video of both incidents and judge for yourself the grotesque absurdity of these claims. Or you could take the word of the resident Renfield of the White House, Stephen Miller, who took to social media and called Pretti “a would-be assassin” who “tried to murder federal law enforcement.”
Videos of Pretti’s horrific killing, shot from multiple angles, show six or seven agents wrestling a passive Pretti to the ground. When they discover a gun on his body, one of the agents appears to disarm Pretti, and then another shoots him four times in the back. A third agent also fires into his body. Shooting a subdued man in the back is the very definition of excessive force and cowardice.
Despite visual evidence to the contrary, Department of Homeland Security honcho and self-proclaimed dog executioner Kristi Noem claimed the Pretti killing was justified: “This looks like a situation where an individual arrived at the scene to inflict maximum damage on individuals and to kill law enforcement.”
Border Patrol commandant Gregory Bovino, whose recent wardrobe choices call to mind someone cosplaying as an Indiana Jones villain, claimed Pretti “wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.” According to the available videos, the only thing Pretti had in his hands during the encounter was a phone. He doesn’t seem to fight the ICE agents in any way. Bovino also made the preposterous and offensive comment that the agents were the real victims in the incident. The lies pile up and insult our intelligence.
No matter what the Trump administration may claim, federal agents are not authorized to act as judge, jury, and executioner on the streets of America. These agents are not above the law. But in both of the Minneapolis killings we see behavior that breaks protocol of a police shooting. The agents leave the scene. Local authorities are prevented from examining the evidence of the killing. Elected officials and the White House trade insults and invective but there’s no effort from Washington to conduct the kind of rigorous investigation that the death of any human being merits on principle or under the eyes of a nation governed by laws. Partisanship and extreme policy turned into a literal blood sport.
A more serious and sober president would attempt to diffuse this situation before the gyre widens further and the country is convulsed by more violence and damage. Instead, President Trump took to Truth Social to attack Minnesota Democrats in a particularly unhinged stream of rage. “Where are the local Police? Why weren’t they allowed to protect ICE Officers? The Mayor and the Governor called them off? It is stated that many of these Police were not allowed to do their job, that ICE had to protect themselves — Not an easy thing to do! Why does Ilhan Omar have $34 Million Dollars in her account? And where are the Tens of Billions of Dollars that have been stolen from the once Great State of Minnesota? We are there because of massive Monetary Fraud, with Billions of Dollars missing, and Illegal Criminals that were allowed to infiltrate the State through the Democrats’ Open Border Policy. We want the money back, and we want it back, NOW.”
What the alleged fraud in Minnesota has to do with ICE killing civilians, other than to distract and deflect, is unclear. This yearlong blitz of insidious distortions from the administration has taken a toll on all of us. There is a fact pattern of mendacity. From DOGE to the Big Beautiful Bill, the gutting of the government workforce, and the weaponization of the Department of Justice to punish political enemies, it’s been an exhausting year of ugly theatrics. Unfortunately, a parade of falsehoods has been used to justify violence before. If killing Venezuelans in boats with missiles was about drugs, where are the narcotics — or any evidence at all? The administration asks us to simply trust them.
Last week, Trump brought his black cloud to Davos to insult our European allies and openly plot to seize a longstanding friendly nation’s territory: Greenland. An island where we already have military access to suit our strategic needs. Trump’s long and deranged speech, filled with more lies and ugly invective, veered into mad king territory. He called Greenland Iceland four times. The performance was an embarrassment, one only bootlicking true believers in the administration would fail to recognize as the president’s brain rot fully exposed. Trump’s coarse and venal character has left the world and large swathes of the country horrified, fearful, and rightfully furious. At home and abroad, the president’s anger and lies sow chaos, confusion, and revulsion.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney summed up the situation: “We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition,” Carney told the crowd at Davos. “Over the past two decades, a series of crises in finance, health, energy, and geopolitics have laid bare the risks of extreme global integration. But more recently, great powers have begun using economic integration as weapons, tariffs as leverage, financial infrastructure as coercion, supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited. You cannot live within the lie of mutual benefit through integration when integration becomes the source of your subordination.”
The carnage needs to stop. Congress has broad powers and must act. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said in the wake of Good’s killing, “We just saw them murder an American citizen in cold blood in the street. Despite whatever lies the president wants to tell, you can see what happened for yourself.”
Despite a bipartisan call for an investigation into Pretti’s killing, led by Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota, there are too few signs of courage beyond the usual vocal opposition. Unless a significant number of the GOP majority joins the minority, this outrageous and consistent abuse of power will only get worse. We can’t have thousands of federal agents roaming cities, sweeping people off the streets, operating with impunity, clashing with protestors, and not expect more violent episodes and senseless death. Unless ICE is reined in, we are heading for more tragedy and bloodshed across the country.
Americans cannot live within all these lies any longer.
commonplace.org
The Trump Administration’s Lies Insult the Intelligence of Every American
Following ICE’s killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota, the president and his top officials have spun false narratives and prevented investigation. Congress must act.