President Donald Trump has backed away from his public feud with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and declared the pair are “on the same wavelength” in wanting to defuse the crisis in Minneapolis.
As tensions over Trump’s deportation agenda spiral following the killing of Veterans Affairs nurse Alex Pretti, the president announced on Monday that he had a “very good” call with Walz, who had phoned him to work together on the situation.
The stunning shift took place moments after Trump announced he had sidelined his embattled Homeland Security Secretary, Kristi Noem, in favor of her rival, border czar Tom Homan.
The decision to send in Homan was a significant one for the White House and underscores its concerns about the growing national anger over Pretti’s shooting by a Border Patrol agent over the weekend—and the botched messaging since.
Noem has also previously been at odds with Homan, who prioritized deportations of “the worst of the worst” criminals and gang members.
In contrast, insiders say, the cosplay-loving Department of Homeland Security secretary wanted broader, theatrical public round-ups, often bypassing Homan in the process.
But after announcing Homan would arrive in Minneapolis on Monday night, Trump wrote on Truth Social: “Governor Tim Walz called me with the request to work together with respect to Minnesota. It was a very good call, and we, actually, seemed to be on a similar wavelength.”
“I told Governor Walz that I would have Tom Homan call him, and that what we are looking for are any and all Criminals that they have in their possession. The Governor, very respectfully, understood that, and I will be speaking to him in the near future. He was happy that Tom Homan was going to Minnesota, and so am I!” he added.
Trump’s positive tone was also notable given his longstanding public attacks against Walz, not only over anti-ICE protests in Minneapolis but also for the long-running welfare fraud scandal that has taken place in his state.
Trump also once childishly nicknamed Walz “Tampon Tim” in reference to a law the governor signed requiring public schools to provide menstrual products to students.
He even recently referred to the governor as “r-tarded” and reposted a vile social media video earlier this month, falsely alleging Walz was behind the assassination of former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman.
Walz, in turn, has described Trump’s past actions as “dangerous” and “depraved” and has repeatedly lashed out at the administration’s immigration operations following the death of U.S. citizen Renee Good on January 7.
But tensions erupted even further over Pretti’s death this weekend, particularly when Noem and other officials within the administration sought to paint him as a “domestic terrorist” intent on harming law enforcement.
Walz’s office confirmed he’d had a “productive call” with Trump and had “made the case that we need impartial investigations of the Minneapolis shootings involving federal agents, and that we need to reduce the number of federal agents in Minnesota.”
According to the governor’s office, Trump agreed to talk to DHS about this, “and also agreed to look into reducing the number of federal agents in Minnesota and working with the state in a more coordinated fashion on immigration enforcement regarding violent criminals.”
Noem’s claims against Pretti came despite multiple videos appearing to contradict her version of events, and the fact that Pretti had a permit to conceal carry a gun, as permitted under Minnesota law.
The claim came despite multiple videos showing otherwise, and the fact that Pretti had a permit to conceal carry a gun, as permitted under Minnesota law.
Notably, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Trump refused to back Noem’s claim that Pretti’s was justified, repeatedly declining to say if the agent who killed him had “done the right thing.”
Insiders say the president became particularly concerned by public polling showing more Americans turning against Trump’s deportation strategy, which was meant to target “the worst of the worst”, not killing U.S citizens.
In a sign of growing Republican unrest, Chris Madel, who was running as a GOP candidate to be the next Minnesota governor, announced he would drop out of the race, in part because he couldn’t “support the national Republicans’ stated retribution on the citizens of our state.”
Trump ally James Comer also suggested over the weekend that if ICE officials were being put in harm’s way and more innocent lives were at risk, “then maybe go to another city and let the people of Minneapolis decide: do we want to continue having all of these illegals?”
He also called Operation Metro Surge, ICE’s operation in Minneapolis, an “unmitigated disaster.”
The post Trump Backs Off Fight With Top Dem as ICE Operation Spirals appeared first on The Daily Beast.
