The Trump administration has once again immersed the United States in a crisis. The officers who are supposed to be protecting America’s borders have again been unleashed on an American city—this time, Minneapolis. The authorities in Minnesota want the Border Patrol and ICE forces to leave; the U.S. government’s response has been to continue to allow them to operate without any limits. These agents are now behaving like a roving mob, a riot squad in balaclavas desperately in search of a riot—and for the second time in 17 days, they have killed one of the American citizens protesting their police-state behavior.
Today’s victim was a 37-year-old ICU nurse named Alex Pretti, shot multiple times while lying on the ground after taking a beating from government agents.
As if to prove that they can always make a terrible situation worse, Trump-administration officials have made a series of statements; some of them are tasteless and immature, while others challenge the intelligence of anyone who has viewed the multiple videos of the killing. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem claimed that the victim walked up to the agents with the intent to slay several of them. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller posted on X that an “assassin tried to murder federal agents.” Neither of these seems to correspond with the video evidence.
Minneapolis police say Pretti had a firearms permit, and that open carry is legal in the state for permit holders. Video of the incident shows him holding a phone, not a gun. Officers do not seem to have realized he was armed until after they pinned him to the ground, and the video does not show them opening fire until after they have taken away his pistol.
The situation looks bad from every angle, which is probably why administration figures are spinning this moment as hard as possible. But what on earth is the self-styled secretary of war, Pete Hegseth, talking about—and why is he talking at all?
Late this afternoon, Hegseth posted this from his personal account on X:
Thank God for the patriots of @ICEgov — we have your back 100%. You are SAVING the country.
Shame on the leadership of Minnesota — and the lunatics in the street.
ICE > MN
What, exactly, does this mean? (The Atlantic has contacted Hegseth’s office for clarification, and so far has received no answer.) The leader of the U.S. military is telling the agents of another government department—one of whom is on video pumping at least five bullets into a man who’d already been shot and was lying on his face—that “we have your back.” Does Hegseth intend to protect these men if they are charged by city or state authorities? Or is he itching to get the U.S. military into the streets, to back up ICE’s undertrained civilians with professional soldiers and heavier hardware?
Worse, the secretary seems to be implying that the government of Minnesota is an enemy of the United States. “ICE > MN” might mean that ICE is … better than Minnesota? Sovereign over Minnesota? Whatever the intent of this formulation, Hegseth thinks ICE is “saving the country,” apparently from the elected leaders of Minnesota and the “lunatics” in the street. (These “lunatics” are also known as “American citizens.”)
Hegseth has neither the legal authority nor the right—and certainly not the moral standing—to make such claims. Statements by incompetent appointees like Noem are bad enough, but Hegseth committing the United States military to “have the backs” of men who shot to death a citizen lying in the street, before the shooting has even been investigated, is beyond irresponsible. Unfortunately, such recklessness is to be expected from a man, and an administration, that treats any city, state, or government agency not controlled by Trump loyalists as an enemy.
Perhaps Hegseth was only showing off. He is an immature and undisciplined man, and he may be trying to prove that he, too, can say something terrible in the wake of a shocking moment of violence. But the secretary of defense is supposed to be the steward of the American military. He is supposed to keep the armed forces out of all but the most dire civil disturbances; instead, Hegseth is trying to involve them in a lawless mess created by another government department. He is supposed to keep the military professional, ready, and apolitical; instead, Hegseth has identified a bunch of rogue civilians as brothers-in-arms, and promised to protect them. He is supposed to keep the American military ready to fight foreign enemies; instead, Hegseth is lashing out at state officials in Minnesota.
Hegseth’s apparent desire to get involved in the Minnesota debacle is dangerous not only to the lives of innocent Americans, but to American democracy itself. The military should not be involved in domestic policing. Cops and border agents and soldiers are different from one another, and they are kept separate in a democracy for good reason. And most important, the Pentagon’s top official should not use his office to identify elected leaders who disagree with the president as enemies who will destroy the nation.
Pete Hegseth has one of the most important jobs on the planet, and it carries a world of obligations to the soldiers of the United States, and to the American people. For now, he might consider adding another task to his many duties, one that would be of immense help to the nation and to the armed forces: He should shut up.
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