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→ Border fallout: The American public is fed up with ICE chaos and cruelty in the wake of the killing of Alex Pretti—and Trump seems to know it. Greg Bovino, our tiny border patrol chief who oversaw the Minneapolis crackdown, is reportedly retiring early (though the admin denies it), as he and several of his agents prepared to leave the city this week. Conservative radio host Erick Erickson said of Pretti’s death: “I went into this ready to blame Alex Pretti. After watching hours of footage from multiple angles. . . I can’t.” So they’ve lost Erick. They’ve also lost gun rights supporters: Rob Doar, senior vice president of the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, said that “If Mr. Pretti was disarmed—absent any other evidence of any risk to an officer—I don’t see how deadly force would be justified.” Even the stately WSJ is calling all y’all a bunch of liars: “Videos Contradict U.S. Account of Minneapolis Shooting by Federal Agents.” The Trump admin defense just falls flat. Kooky Kristi (Noem) came out to claim that Pretti was trying to kill people: “This looks like a situation where an individual arrived at the scene to inflict maximum damage on individuals and to kill law enforcement.” Does it? If Alex Pretti had a gun and was trying to kill law enforcement, wouldn’t he have, like, drawn that gun and shot at them? Whatever he was doing it certainly doesn’t look like someone attempting to inflict maximum damage, à la John Wick. Finally, after days of outrage, Tom Homan said ICE enforcement in Minneapolis “can be improved” and that they’re working on a “drawdown,” which is the closest to an apology you’ll get from a Trump appointee.
A whopping 59 percent of voters see ICE actions as “too aggressive.” And to top it all off, a new Cato Institute paper out this week shows that “Overall, immigrants consumed about 24 percent less welfare and entitlement benefits than native-born Americans.” Wait a second. . . I thought all those guys standing outside Home Depot were looking for welfare checks, not jobs. I’m simply shocked by this.
Meanwhile, Trump is fundraising off the news cycle because why the hell not:
Does it read a little flirty to anyone else?
