Donald Trump twice dodged a direct question after being cornered about the brutal killing of ICU nurse Alex Pretti.
Veteran Affairs nurse Pretti, 37, was shot in public on a Minnesota street on Saturday by a masked Border Patrol agent during a scuffle between protesters and immigration officers.
Speaking on Sunday, Trump, 79, shirked when asked twice whether the immigration officer who fatally shot Pretti had done the right thing.
“We’re looking, we’re reviewing everything and will come out with a determination,” Trump told The Wall Street Journal, avoiding the actual question.
When asked about the deflection, the White House referred the Daily Beast to Trump’s two Truth Social posts on Sunday that blame the Democrats for the protests in Minneapolis, as they have pushed back on ICE raids.
Another citizen, Renee Good, was shot dead by an ICE agent on Jan. 7. Trump did not mention Good or Pretti by name in his tirade.
In his two lengthy posts, which clock in at almost 530 words, Trump said “Democrat run Sanctuary Cities and States” who are “REFUSING” to cooperate with ICE were encouraging the protests from “Leftwing Agitators.”
“By doing this, Democrats are putting Illegal Alien Criminals over Taxpaying, Law-Abiding Citizens, and they have created dangerous circumstances for EVERYONE involved. Tragically, two American Citizens have lost their lives as a result of this Democrat ensued chaos.”
Speaking to the WSJ on Sunday, Trump said, “I don’t like any shooting. I don’t like it. But I don’t like it when somebody goes into a protest and he’s got a very powerful, fully loaded gun with two magazines loaded up with bullets also. That doesn’t play good either.”
The president claimed Pretti was in possession of a “very dangerous gun, a dangerous and unpredictable gun.” He said, “It’s a gun that goes off when people don’t know it.”
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called the nurse a “terrorist” but deflected questions about his weapon.
Trump did confirm during his five-minute phone call with the Journal that ICE agents will leave Minneapolis “at some point,” but did not give a date for their withdrawal.
Vice President JD Vance echoed Trump’s narrative on X, claiming that Minnesota state and local officials have deliberately encouraged conflict and protest.
Vance shared stories he had been told of ICE and Border Patrol officers being locked in a Minneapolis restaurant, with local police refusing to help them as they had been advised to do by local authorities.
“This is just a taste of what’s happening in Minneapolis because state and local officials refuse to cooperate with immigration enforcement,” Vance, 41, claimed. “They have created the chaos so they can have moments like yesterday, where someone tragically dies and politicians get to grandstand about the evils of enforcing the border.”
At a press conference on Sunday, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz directly asked Trump what his plan for the state is.
“What do we need to do to get these federal agents out of our state? You thought fear, violence, and chaos is what you wanted from us, and you clearly underestimated the people of this state and nation,” Walz said.
He added that the citizens were “peaceful, but we’ll never forget”.
“If it was the intention of Donald Trump to make an example of Minnesota, then I’m damn proud of the example that the world’s seeing. We believe in law and order in this state. We believe in peace. And we believe that Donald Trump needs to pull these 3,000 untrained agents out of Minnesota before they kill another person.”
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