A turning point?
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Or (as I suspect) will Trump just dig in deeper?
A number of editorials are calling out the administration today and some republicans (governors, maybe a few senators) are calling for independent investigations.
It's probably a turning point, but the question is, which way will Trump take? He could get a lot worse, or he could back off. It's hard to imagine the latter.
WaPo:
The unjust killing of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse in Minneapolis, marks a turning point in President Donald Trump’s second term. His mass deportation campaign has been a moral and political failure, leaving American citizens feeling outraged and unsafe.
A Border Patrol officer killed Pretti on Saturday, and the Department of Homeland Security quickly claimed that Pretti was a “domestic terrorist” who wanted to “massacre” agents. Yet Pretti can be seen on tape holding his phone, not a gun, in his right hand, and his left hand is empty.
The outrageous refusal by the feds to allow local authorities to properly secure the crime scene or gather evidence further inflames tensions with state and city police. The lack of accountability for federal officers has undermined the administration’s claims that this is about law and order.
WSJ:
Stephen Miller’s mass deportation methods are turning immigration, an issue Mr. Trump owned in 2024, into a political liability for Republicans in 2026. Americans don’t want law enforcement shooting people in the street or arresting five-year-old boys. The Trump Administration spin on this simply isn’t believable.
Stephen Miller, the political architect of the mass deportation policy, called Pretti a “domestic terrorist.” He was a nurse without a criminal record. To hear the ardent gun-rights advocates of the Trump Administration claim he had malicious intentions because he carried a concealed weapon is bizarre.
It’s worth noting the comments over the weekend by police around the country who say that this isn’t how they conduct law enforcement. This is backfiring against Republicans. Ms. Noem and Mr. Miller aren’t credible spokesmen. Their social-media and cable-TV strategy is to own the libs, rather than to persuade Americans.
NYPost:
It’s time to de-escalate in Minneapolis, Mr. President. Not because you’re wrong to enforce immigration law, nor to go after fraudsters who’ve stolen billions in federal funds — but because these enforcement tactics won’t turn the tide, instead they are backfiring. Swing voters — Hispanics and independents who turned to you at the last election — see US citizens dying at federal agents’ hands, and recoil in horror.
The anti-ICE crew is getting exactly what it wants right now. People looking at a video on TikTok don’t get any of the context: All they’re seeing is a crowd of agents beating a guy onto the ground, with shots then ringing out and him ending up dead. Having Homeland Security double down now is all too likely to produce more such scenes. Nor is invoking the Insurrection Act going to fix things. Quite the contrary, it’ll backfire even worse.
Team Trump needs to cool things down, and let the American public see calm leadership. However noble the mission is to rid the country of the “worst of the worst,” the broad support for it is now ebbing fast. Mr. President, the American people didn’t vote for these scenes and you can’t continue to order them to not believe their lying eyes.
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Just heard on BBC News that Walz and Trump spoke today. Tom Homan is being sent to Minneapolis to try to ratchet down the tension. I'm guessing the orange guy is looking for an off ramp. Of course with him it's also about the last person he talked to, so if Stephen Miller gets his ear again we could be richocheting in another direction.
A turning point?
Gawd, I hope so.
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Just heard on BBC News that Walz and Trump spoke today. Tom Homan is being sent to Minneapolis to try to ratchet down the tension. I'm guessing the orange guy is looking for an off ramp. Of course with him it's also about the last person he talked to, so if Stephen Miller gets his ear again we could be richocheting in another direction.
A turning point?
Gawd, I hope so.
@wtg said in A turning point?:
Of course with him it's also about the last person he talked to, so if Stephen Miller gets his ear again we could be richocheting in another direction.
Keep our eyes on Maine. There was a brief altercation there over the weekend with ICE agents.
