President Trump said on Tuesday that “we’re going to de-escalate a little bit” when it comes to his immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, the latest indication that the mounting backlash to the fatal shooting of a protester Saturday had prompted him to try to shift perceptions of the administration’s approach.
Mr. Trump did not specify what tactics being used by federal immigration agents would change, if any. And he continued to blame Alex Pretti, the intensive care unit nurse shot by Border Patrol agents, for legally carrying a gun with a permit — comments that risked angering gun rights supporters in his base.
“You can’t walk in with guns,” Mr. Trump told reporters as he departed the White House for a speech in Iowa about the economy. “You can’t do that,” he added, before calling Mr. Pretti’s death “a very unfortunate incident.”
The president also acknowledged the aggressive tactics of Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol official known for his confrontational style who was pulled out of Minneapolis. In an interview with Fox News, Mr. Trump described him as “a pretty out there kind of guy.”
“In some cases it’s good,” the president said. “Maybe it’s not good here.”
The fallout from Mr. Pretti’s killing on a frozen Minneapolis street Saturday shadowed the president’s attempts to focus on the economy during a speech to supporters in Clive, Iowa, an event meant to serve as a kickoff for his broader campaign to bolster Republicans in the midterm elections. Outside the Horizon Events Center before the appearance, thousands of protesters blew whistles, beat drums and chanted “ICE out now!”
During his address, Mr. Trump did not mention the shooting. But he kept up his hard-edge attacks on immigrants, lines that got the loudest cheers of the night. At one point, he raised the specter of immigrants who may “blow up our shopping centers, blow up our farms, kill people.” He also falsely portrayed the vast majority of those detained by ICE in Minnesota and elsewhere as hardened criminals, asserting that once those people were removed, crime would be nearly eliminated.
On Capitol Hill Tuesday, the top three House Democrats came out in support of an effort to impeach Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary — part of a growing chorus in the party calling for her ouster after the deaths of two protesters in Minneapolis in recent weeks.
Republicans were also critical. Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, a Republican retiring at the end of his term, told reporters that Ms. Noem should be fired, and called her actions “amateurish.”
Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, struck a similar note.
“You have a secretary right now who needs to be accountable to the chaos and some of the tragedy that we have seen,” Ms. Murkowski told reporters.
Throughout the day, reflecting the competing pressures he was under from aides who wanted to stay the course and from Republicans who joined the criticism of the administration’s tactics, Mr. Trump kept hedging his comments. During the Fox News interview, he insisted: “I don’t think this is a pullback.”
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But the president also said that “we’re going to de-escalate a little bit.” He noted that he had dispatched his border czar, Tom Homan, to take over the operation in Minneapolis.
Mr. Trump also told reporters that he did not believe Mr. Pretti was a potential “assassin,” the term used by his close aide, Stephen Miller.
Since Mr. Pretti’s killing, the president has repeatedly questioned why the protester was carrying a gun as he was observing Border Patrol agents conducting an operation. (Mr. Trump has not made similar comments about incidents in which his supporters have carried weapons, including during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.)
Similar rhetoric in recent days by top administration officials has drawn condemnation from gun rights groups, including the National Rifle Association.
Mr. Trump insisted Tuesday that he was awaiting a “very honorable and honest investigation’’ into the shooting. That investigation is being conducted by the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the agents who were involved in Mr. Pretti’s shooting. Ms. Noem was also among the first and most insistent to declare that Mr. Pretti had violent motives, saying he had arrived on the scene with the intention to “inflict maximum damage on individuals and to kill law enforcement.”
No evidence has emerged to support that assertion.
Details that have emerged in court filings so far indicate that the Department of Homeland Security probe is limited to a “use of force” review, rather than a broader inquiry that would examine whether the agents should face criminal charges.
Arriving in Iowa, Mr. Trump tried to change the topic, appearing at a rally where he was surrounded by supporters holding signs that said “Lower Prices.”
“Incomes are up, prices are down, our economy is roaring,” the president declared. “Our workers are thriving and our country is winning again.”
Mr. Trump has frequently claimed that prices are declining, though federal statistics show that the inflation rate — while slowing from several years ago — is hovering around 2.7 percent. He claimed that he had inherited “the highest inflation rate in the history of our country,” though that statement was false — something he seemed to acknowledge almost immediately, correcting himself to say it was the highest in “48 years.” (In fact, the highest was more than a century ago, at the end of World War I, when the inflation rate hit 23 percent.)
Republicans in Congress, also eager to turn the conversation away from the fatal shooting in Minneapolis, spent much of the day Tuesday seeking to remind voters who would soon file tax returns about the tax cuts their party had pushed through Congress in their marquee domestic policy bill last year.
Speaker Mike Johnson, who as of Tuesday afternoon had not put out a statement responding to Mr. Pretti’s death, took to social media proclaiming: “MORE MONEY IS BEING RETURNED TO YOU.”
“That’s what happens when Republicans are in charge and we put AMERICANS first,” Mr. Johnson wrote.
Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the senior-most Republican in the chamber, delivered a triumphal speech from the Senate floor, saying: “This year taxpayers can expect to see some of the largest tax refunds in history.”
“That, of course, is thanks to our enactment of the legislation called the Working Families Tax Act,” Mr. Grassley said, referring to the legislation that Mr. Trump had insisted on calling the “Big Beautiful Bill.” Republicans have since rebranded that law after polling showed that voters had a negative opinion of it.
Reporting was contributed by Catie Edmondson, Michael Gold, Chris Cameron and Ann Klein.
Aishvarya Kavi works in the Washington bureau of The Times, helping to cover a variety of political and national news.
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