Stephen Miller's eye-popping walk-back on slain nurse stuns CNN reporter

Robert Davis
January 27, 2026 

RAW STORY


White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller walks on the tarmac upon arrival at Zurich International Airport, as U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, in Zurich, Switzerland January 21, 2026. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

One of President Donald Trump's top aides issued a stunning statement on Tuesday, walking back claims he made about slain ICU nurse Alex Pretti shortly after his death, according to a new report

Stephen Miller, Trump's deputy chief of staff for policy, said shortly after Pretti's death that he attended a Minneapolis protest over the weekend with the intent to "massacre agents." Axios reported on Tuesday that Miller forced Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to use similar talking points about Pretti, including the assertion that he was a "domestic terrorist."

Miller was forced to walk back those claims after the Trump administration faced significant pressure to reform its immigration regime. CNN's Kristen Holmes read his statement on "Erin Burnett OutFront," and described it as "stunning."

"He is essentially conceding or acknowledging that there might have been a breach of protocol when it comes to the shooting of Alex Petti," Holmes said. "And just a reminder, this is the same person who said that Pretti in the aftermath was a would-be assassin."

"This is what the statement says, and he lays this out very clearly," she continued. "He says that 'The White House provided clear guidance to DHS, that the extra personnel that had been sent to Minnesota to force protection should be used for conducting fugitive operations to create a physical barrier between the arrest teams and the disrupter teams, goes on to say, we are evaluating why the CBP team may not have been following that protocol.'"

Trump's immigration regime has come under increased scrutiny since Pretti's killing. The administration has reportedly ousted Customs and Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino and replaced him with border czar Tom Homan. Trump has also reportedly agreed to de-escalate the situation in Minneapolis, although it remains unclear if troops will be removed from the city.

Stephen Miller buried in internet scorn after ICE backtrack: 'He knows he messed up'

Matthew Chapman
January 27, 2026 
RAW STORY


White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller looks on at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO summit in Gyeongju, South Korea on Oct. 29, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

Stephen Miller has consistently been one of the most extreme anti-immigrant, pro-mass deportation voices in the Trump administration, and had his hands deeply in the policies that led to federal agents instituting a harsh crackdown in Minneapolis that led to multiple deaths. But now even he is trying to run away from it.

On Tuesday evening, CNN reported that Miller, who just days before called slain VA intensive care nurse Alex Pretti a terrorist who tried to "massacre agents," now says that the White House “provided clear guidance to DHS" to "create a physical barrier between the arrest teams" and protesters, and “we are evaluating why the CBP team may not have been following that protocol.”

The statement drew immediate response from commenters on social media, who said that things must be apocalyptically bad for the Trump team if even Miller realized he needed to point fingers over the situation.

"Miller tries to blame CPB, may all these murderers take each other down and crawl back in their hole," wrote former Politico foreign policy analyst Laura Rozen.

"This is why we record," wrote award-winning Atlanta News First investigator Brendan Keefe. "This is why filming law enforcement & govt activities is protected under the First Amendment. Without the multiple citizen videos, the government's false 'massacre' & 'assassinate ICE agents' & 'domestic terrorist' storylines would have been irrefutable."

"How badly did they screw it up if Stephen Miller, the worst person in the world™, is backtracking?" wrote Illinois talk radio host Patrick Pfingsten.

"Too late for this kind of backtracking," wrote podcaster Jayne Miller. "Stephen Miller called Alex Pretti an 'assassin' who tried to 'murder federal agents' with zero evidence to support it."

"Why did #StephenMiller declare a US citizen a terrorist?" wrote international political analyst Tara O'Connor. "Will Miller face sanction? If not why not?"

"Miller climbing down from his assertion that Alex Pretti was an assassin and is suddenly sounding like a concerned bureaucrat," wrote Pedro L. Gonzalez of Chronicles Magazine. "Because he knows he messed up. He knows that the public has turned against the administration, in large part because of him."

TRUMPIST ATTACK

I Don’t Let Bullies Win’: Ilhan Omar Assaulted at Town Hall Amid Repeated Trump Attacks

“Here’s the reality that people like this ugly man don’t understand,” said the Democratic lawmaker following the attack. “We are Minnesota strong and we will stay resilient in the face of whatever they might throw at us.”


A man is tackled after spraying an unknown substance at US Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN) (L) during a town hall she was hosting in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on January 27, 2026.
(Photo by Octavio Jones / AFP via Getty Images)

Jon Queally
Jan 27, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota was assaulted on Tuesday evening during a town hall event in Minneapolis by a man who squirted some kind of liquid from a syringe on the lawmaker amid heightened tensions in the state and following a series of baseless allegations and intensifying insults directed at her by US President Donald Trump.

During public remarks to local constituents—just as she called for ICE to be abolished and that Secratary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem should “resign of face impeachment”—video footage of the attack shows a man wearing a black jacket sitting in the front row abruptly rise from his seat and lunge toward Omar’s podium as he sprays something at her with a syringe in his right hand.



DOJ Investigating Omar Called ‘Continuation of Trump’s Revenge Campaign’


Omar Warns Trump Aims to Provoke Enough Agitation in Minnesota So He Can Declare ‘Martial Law’

While apparently unharmed, Omar first backs away before charging at the man, before he is tackled by security, and other bystanders intervene.

Watch:

“Oh my god,” someone off camera can be heard saying, “He sprayed something on her.”

Maintaining her composure after the man was subdued, Omar said, “Here’s the reality that people like this ugly man don’t understand; we are Minnesota strong, and we will stay resilient in the face of whatever they might throw at us.”

According to the Star Tribune:
Minneapolis police said officers saw a man use a syringe to spray an unknown liquid at Omar. They immediately arrested him and booked him at the county jail for third-degree assault, spokesperson Trevor Folke said in an email. Police also said forensic scientists responded to the scene.

Omar continued the town hall after the man was ushered out of the room by her security detail, saying she would not be intimidated. Journalists said there was a strong, vinegar-like smell when the man pushed on the syringe.

Walking out afterward, Omar said she felt a little flustered but was not hurt. She was going to be screened by a medical team.

Over recent weeks—as Minnesota has been the focus of nationwide outrage due to the authoritarian tactics used by federal immigration agents deployed and the killing of two observers, Renee Good and Alex Pretti—Trump, a racist, has repeatedly targeted Omar with false suggestions that she has perpetrated fraud due to her personal financial disclosures and used her Somali heritage to insult her as a “garbage person.”

“I’m ok. I’m a survivor so this small agitator isn’t going to intimidate me from doing my work,” Omar said in a post shortly after the incident. “I don’t let bullies win. Grateful to my incredible constituents who rallied behind me. Minnesota strong.”

Many credited Omar for her fortitude in the face of the attack, both during and after.

“llhan is toughest lawmaker in Congress,” said journalist Pablo Manríquez. “No one gets more hate, then goes right back to doing the work.”

Man charges Ilhan Omar at podium and sprays her with mystery substance during town hall

Robert Davis
January 27, 2026 
RAW STORY


A man shouts at U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN) after spraying her, during a town hall meeting days after a man identified as Alex Pretti was fatally shot by federal immigration agents trying to detain him, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., January 27, 2026, in a still image from video. REUTERS/Maria Alejandra Cardona

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) was sprayed with an unidentified substance while speaking at a town hall in Minneapolis on Tuesday.

Video shared on social media by Jay O'Brien, Capitol Hill correspondent for ABC News, shows a bearded man in a heavy jacket charging Omar at the podium before he is grabbed and whisked away by security. Omar and the other local lawmakers in attendance were visibly in shock. The town hall continued after the person was removed.

"What an a---hole," one attendee can be heard saying.

"He sprayed her!" another one shouted.

The town hall comes at a time when tensions between community members and the federal government have reached a fever pitch. Over the weekend, federal agents shot and killed a 37-year-old ICU nurse named Alex Pretti during a protest. Pretti's death is the second high-profile killing by Trump's immigration agents in Minneapolis this month.

MAGA suspects Ilhan Omar 'orchestrated' town hall attack: 'Completely staged!'

Daniel Hampton
January 27, 2026

RAW STORY


U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar speaks during a town hall meeting, days after a man identified as Alex Pretti was fatally shot by federal immigration agents trying to detain him, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., January 27, 2026. REUTERS/Maria Alejandra Cardona

MAGA world watched chaos unfold at Rep. Ilhan Omar's (D-MN) town hall - in which a man charged the podium and sprayed her with a pungent mystery substance - and concluded the whole thing must've been staged.

At the Minneapolis town hall on Tuesday night, a front-row agitator suddenly rushed at Omar and doused her with an odorous, vinegar-like liquid while she addressed the crowd on immigration enforcement. Omar had just called for the resignation of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and the abolition of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Security swiftly tackled the suspect and hauled him off in handcuffs as the congresswoman stood her ground, visibly shaken but refusing to leave the stage.

Her office condemned the incident and confirmed she suffered no serious injuries.

Despite clear video and photos of the incident MAGA world surmised Omar must've orchestrated the incident. That includes prominent right-wing conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer and former Fox Business reporter Trish Regan.

"This is the most staged thing I have ever seen in my life. I’m calling for an immediate investigation into whether @IlhanMN Ilhan Omar staged the spraying of her body at her Townhall tonight to distract from new reports over her marriage fraud and accumulation of $30 million worth of wealth on a $180,000 per year salary," she wrote on X. "There must be an investigation into this known fraudster. This looks very staged, and I would not be surprised if Ilhan set this up herself so she could cry victim as President Trump is exposing her and as Congress and the DOJ are investigating her and her husband."

MAGA commentator Paul A. Szypula declared on X, "Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) gets sprayed with a liquid substance while she’s speaking. She’s a fraud so it’s completely plausible that she orchestrated this. Deport Ilhan."

In a separate post, Szypula wrote on X, "Another angle of Ilhan Omar being sprayed while she called for DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s impeachment. Never believe anything Ilhan says or does. This could all be a hoax she created. Deport Ilhan as soon as possible."

The MAGA account Clown World questioned on X, "Do you think this was real or staged?"

Right-wing journalist Trish Regan wrote on X, "Ilhan Omar was reportedly sprayed in the face tonight — And, she runs after the attacker?!! As though she’s about to take him out? This is not normal behavior. Not even close. No wonder people are asking if it was STAGED!"

This chilling Trump message led to murder

Thom Hartmann
January 27, 2026 

RAW STORY

Kristi Noem, Donald Trump, Greg Bovino, and even Whiskey Pete Hegseth are all out there trying to tell us that Alex Pretti was a domestic terrorist who came to a protest with the intention to “massacre” ICE agents.

But that’s not their real message.

Back in 1980, I went into Uganda during the Civil War against Idi Amin to take over a refugee camp up in the Karamoja region. When I was leaving the country, going through the Entebbe airport (which had only intermittent electricity and considerable damage from the war), I was confronted by three armed men, two of them Tanzanian soldiers (who’d just successfully occupied the country as Amin fled to Saudi Arabia) and one a local Ugandan policeman.

One of the soldiers had an AK-47 over his shoulder and he grabbed the clip and rotated the gun down so the barrel was pointed right at my nose from a distance of about 6 inches.
“I could kill you right here, right now,” he said with a smile, “and nobody will ever know. Nobody will ever punish me. Now, give us half of your money.”

His message was essentially the same message that the Trump regime is trying to communicate to all of us today:

“We have all the power. You have none. We can get away with murder, repeatedly, and there’s nothing you can do about it.

In other words: “Obey or die!”

It certainly worked for those three; I split the little money I had with them and they let me get on my plane.

This “we have all the power and you have none” is the classic, eternal message of fascism, wherever and whenever it appears in the world.

Noem and Bovino aren’t trying to convince anybody (other than the pathetic, brainwashed suckers who watch Fox “News”) that both Alex Pretti and Nicole Good were “domestic terrorists.” They know that both were merely well-intentioned citizens protesting the occupation of their city by masked federal goons.


Their real message — and Trump’s, Stephen Miller’s, and JD Vance’s real message — to Democrats and to America is:
“Challenge us and we will kill you. And we will get away with it. That’s how powerful we are, so you shouldn’t even try to resist.”


And it appears, indeed, that they will get away with it. They’ve already shut down the investigation of Renee Good’s murder, and have now seized the evidence from Alex Pretti’s murder. And suffered no consequences whatsoever for this naked obstruction of justice.

Hakeem Jeffries is hiding someplace in Washington, D.C., perhaps under the same table as Chuck Schumer. Both should be in Minneapolis right now holding ad hoc hearings and engaging the nation in nonstop media the way Noem and Bovino are: you don’t fight corrupt power by cowering. You have to show up.


Meanwhile, the generally useless and certainly feckless Republicans in Congress are anxiously counting their campaign contributions, particularly the ones to their leadership PACs that they can take with them when they leave office.

Billionaires are buying fancy homes around D.C. so they can continue to purchase Republican politicians, while rightwing media struggles to convince people that what they’re seeing with their own lying eyes isn’t true.

And the message under it all is:

“We’re in charge here. You may not resist us. We are in control, not you. Obey or die.”


Studies show that conservative men, and law enforcement officers particularly, are generally submissive men who need a “strict father” figure to tell them what to do and who crave regular reinforcement — often achieved by using violence — for their fragile sense of masculinity.

— When a young woman tried to make her peaceful protest known, these cucks felt threatened so they violently threw her down onto the ice and sprayed her in the face with liquid pepper and other chemicals.

Their message: “Obey or die!”


— When Alex Pretti tried to put himself between the CPB/ICE thugs and the young woman they were beating up, he enraged them by claiming some power for himself. Thus, he also had to be punished, so first they knocked him to the ground and sprayed liquid pepper into his face, too, to blind and disorient him.

Their message: “Obey or die!”

— When he staggered back up from that, again asserting his personal power, it was apparently the final straw: to preserve their masculinity, this man — like the woman who’d laughed at impotent officer Jonathan Ross two weeks earlier — had to be taken down.


Their message: “Obey or die.”

— Finding his gun — a symbol of male power they were offended he dared legally carry — was pure gold for them. They eliminated any threat his gun might have represented by removing it and then — like the cowards they are — put as many as ten bullets into his back.

He didn’t obey, so he had to die.

These craven weaklings, desperate to prove their manhood and reassert their power, murdered Alex Pretti for having dared to challenge them, and then applauded themselves as one said of Pretti’s death, “Boo hoo.” Just like Vladimir Putin does when average people challenge him in Russia, Viktor Orbán does in Hungary, the Ayatollah does in Iran, Recip Tayyep Erdoğan does in Turkey, and Abdel Fattah El-Sisi does in Egypt, among others.


This is how fascist men roll and have throughout history; it’s an entirely predictable playbook, as Ruth Ben Ghiat, Mary Trump, Jason Stanley, Timothy Snyder, and Miles Taylor can tell you: “Obey or die.”

It’s particularly ironic that right now, as a the USS Abraham Lincoln and a small armada of accompanying warships are scheduled to arrive off the coast of Iran by the end of this week, that Iranian state TV is running clips of ICE gassing and killing Minnesotans on a loop.

They’re openly saying that Trump is doing the same as they did a few weeks ago, therefore justifying executing their own “domestic terrorists.”


And now, in a pathetic joke, Trump says he’s going to punish Iran’s mullahs for killing their own people on the streets of Tehran at the same time he brags about and justifies gunning down Americans on the streets of Minneapolis.

The brutal, cold-blooded murders of Good and Pretti also show clearly that ICE’s and CBP’s presence in Minnesota has little to do with immigration; there are only an estimated 130,000 undocumented people in the entire state, although Texas and Florida each have millions.

Minnesota, however, is a swing state that Trump lost three times and Republicans are looking at an electoral disaster this fall: something had to be done to set an example there that might cow other Democratic-led states.

When Pam Bondi sent her letter to Minnesota’s Governor Tim Walz saying that if he’d just turn his voting rolls over to her (presumably so she could “clean” aka “purge” the list to rig this November’s election), she’d pull ICE and CPB out of the state.

That’s how Putin, Orbán, and Erdoğan, et al remain in power, by intimidating the population at the same time they rig their elections. It’s the model Trump has in mind for 2026 America, and tried to execute in 2020 with his phony electors scheme, a conspiracy with over 140 Republicans who voted not to confirm Biden, and, when those didn’t work, finally the attack on January 6th.

Trump’s message on January 6th was the same: “Obey or die.” Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi barely escaped being killed by Trump’s murderous mob, and four police officers lost their lives at the hands of the GOP’s shock troops.

We’re nuts if we think Trump and the people around him wouldn’t try it again, particularly when they’re all looking at the possibility of prison time if an impeachment effort is successful because so many Republicans could lose their seats this fall.

Trump himself has already been found guilty of fraud multiple times, exposed for stealing money from a children’s cancer charity, and found liable for sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll. His lickspittles have to know that John Mitchell, Nixon’s Attorney General, and 40 other senior officials (including a Cabinet member) went to prison in the 1970s.

Trump is a weak, psychologically damaged man, as were Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, and most of the world’s other historic strongmen. Their weakness and emotional damage are what drive them to their “Obey or die” proclamations.

Such people not only draw others with a similar malady into their circles, but they also typically inflict generationally-destructive damage on their own countries when people push back against them.

These weak men, knowing well their own fear, sense weakness the way a mouse senses cheese. They smell fear, and right now, as Republicans and most Democrats have gone into hiding, Washington reeks of it.

History is unambiguous about what happens when bullies aren’t confronted early and publicly: their violence escalates, their lies morph into history and law, and intimidation against anybody who dares speak up becomes the new normal.

Soon, everybody is silent.

Good and Pretti weren’t accidents, and they weren’t about immigration: these intentional killings, these murders, were unambiguous messages as clear as the one I got in Uganda that fall afternoon: “Get in our way and we will kill you, and nobody will do anything about it. Obey or die.”

And unless Democratic leadership takes a cue from the good people of Minnesota and steps up and fights back hard, the next message will be even broader and bloodier, because authoritarians always interpret silence as permission.

Thom Hartmann is a New York Times best-selling author and SiriusXM talk show host. His Substack can be found here.

MAGA freaks out at Hollywood star Natalie Portman over teary-eyed comments on Trump's ICE

Robert Davis
January 27, 2026 
RAW STORY


Natalie Portman. (Photo credit: lev radin / Shutterstock)

Fans of President Donald Trump's MAGA movement freaked out at a Hollywood film star on Tuesday after she made a teary-eyed statement about Trump's immigration forces.

Natalie Portman, who has starred in films like "Garden State" and "Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith," discussed the actions of Trump's Immigration and Customs Enforcement on the red carpet of the premiere of her new film "The Gallerist" at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah on Saturday. That was the same day immigration agents swarmed and killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse in Minneapolis, during a protest against Trump's immigration regime.

"It's such a horrible day, it's been a horrible week. What is happening in our country is just obscene," Portman said through tears, according to reporting from The Daily Mail.

Trump's immigration forces have faced growing scrutiny since Pretti's death, with a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers calling on Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to either resign or be fired. Trump privately fumed at coverage of Noem in the aftermath of Pretti's killing, telling people inside the White House that she "made the administration look bad."

Fans of Trump's MAGA movement shared their reactions to Portman's comments on social media.

"Where were her tears for Laken Riley?" MAGA radio personality Megyn Kelly told her listeners. "Tell it to Jocelyn Nungaray's mother as you cry while these guys are trying to deport molesters of children, you f---ing idiot know-nothing."

"They're doing their jobs Natalie," right-wing journalist Tommy Robinson posted on X. "Maybe stick to yours, because those crocodile tears are fooling nobody."

"Natalie Portman cries about the deportation of criminal illegal migrants," MAGA commentator David Vance posted on X. "She is a moral void.'

"It's classic celebrity hypocrisy: virtue-signal against law enforcement protecting our sovereignty, all while enjoying the privileges that strong borders help preserve. Real Americans see through the tears," the America First Facebook group wrote in a statement.

'Bloodthirsty': MAGA media calls for violence after nurse's killing leaves analysts aghast

Robert Davis
January 27, 2026 

RAW STORY

Two analysts were stunned on Tuesday after a flood of "bloodthirsty" MAGA media personalities called for President Donald Trump to inflict more violence against protesters in Minneapolis following the killing of ICU nurse Alex Pretti.

Sam Stein, managing editor of The Bulwark, and Will Sommer, the publication's senior reporter, discussed how the MAGA media sphere reacted to Pretti's death during a new episode of "Bulwark Takes" on Tuesday. They highlighted examples from commentators like Megyn Kelly, who claimed she felt no sympathy for Pretti after he was killed, and Greg Kelly, who said immigration officers were right to mistake Pretti's phone for a gun.

"Look, to openly say you don't feel sorry that someone was shot to death, you gotta have a little absence of something in your core to say something like that, but that seems to be a particular strain of reaction on the right," Stein said.

Sommer noted that Kelly's argument that Pretti's death was justified because he was shouting at officers was an "innovation in Constitutional law."

"At that point, if you're shouting, safety's off and they can kill you if they want," he noted.

The MAGA reactions happened at a time when the Trump administration is switching out its immigration leadership. Border czar Tom Homan was deployed to Minneapolis to take over command from Customs and Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino, who is reportedly being forced into retirement after a disastrous response to Pretti's death.

GOP Senate Judiciary chair plays dumb on legality of no-warrant ICE raids: 'I'm a farmer!'

Matthew Chapman
January 27, 2026 
RAW STORY

U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) speaks as Kash Patel, U.S. President Donald Trump's nominee to be director of the FBI, testifies before a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., January 30, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein


Senate Judiciary Committee chair Chuck Grassley (R-IA) pleaded ignorance when questioned by reporters on Tuesday about whether Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents had legal authority to break into people's homes without a warrant from a judge.

According to Igor Bobic of HuffPost, when Grassley was posed the question, the answer he gave was, “Ask a constitutional lawyer. I'm a farmer.”

Grassley, age 92, has served multiple terms heading up the Judiciary Committee, where he has been responsible for, among other things, vetting and shepherding through the confirmation of President Donald Trump's judicial nominees.

Ironically, in 2014, the Iowa Senate race that went on to elect Grassley's junior colleague Joni Ernst was shaken up when her Democratic opponent, then-Rep. Bruce Braley, was raked over the coals by Republicans and the Iowa press for telling a room full of attorneys in Texas that Grassley's background as a farmer made him unqualified to chair the Judiciary Committee.

"If you help me win this race you may have someone with your background, your experience, your voice, someone who’s been literally fighting tort reform for 30 years, in a visible or public way, on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Or, you might have a farmer from Iowa who never went to law school, never practiced law, serving as the next chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee," said Braley at the time. He gave a lengthy apology when the remarks were leaked.

While Grassley deflected the question, other GOP senators are increasingly raising alarms about ICE tactics and Homeland Security leadership in general. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) told Bobic he objects to “the idea that you can write your own warrant,” while Sens. Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) have outright called for DHS Secretary Kristi Noem's resignation.

Top Republican sparks outrage after playing dumb about Trump's ICE: 'Coward'

Robert Davis
January 27, 2026 
RAW STORY


U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) speaks during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 16, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst


Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), sparked outrage on Tuesday after he seemed to play dumb about whether some of the actions of President Donald Trump's immigration forces are legal.

Igor Bobíc, senior politics reporter at HuffPost, posted on X that he tried asking Grassley whether it is appropriate for Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to enter an American citizen's home without a judicial warrant. Last week, the Associated Press reported that ICE officers have been told they have the legal authority to enter people's homes without a warrant, sparking outrage from legal experts.

“Ask a constitutional lawyer,” said Grassley, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee. “I'm a farmer.”

Grassley's comments happened at a time when Trump's immigration forces are facing increased scrutiny over their actions in Minneapolis. Over the last several weeks, immigration agents have shot multiple people while conducting immigration raids. Two shootings have led to high-profile deaths that caused calls for the Trump administration to reform its operations.

Political analysts shared their reactions on social media.


"This f------ chickens--- coward," writer Charlotte Clymer posted on X.


"Disgraceful," The Tennessee Holler posted on X.

"I see Chuck Grassley’s going with the 'I'm just a smol bean' defense here," progressive YouTuber Brian Tyler Cohen posted on X.

"To be fair, Chuck's 92, he started bending the knee to Trump back 10 years ago and just couldn't get back up," the anti-Trump group The Lincoln Project posted on X.

This brutal invasion would horrify our nation's founders

Jeff Kolnick,

 Minnesota Reformer
January 26, 2026 


ICE agents confront protesters in Minneapolis. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu

The Twin Cities metropolitan area is under occupation by armed federal agents. According to the Census Reporter, there are roughly 3.7 million people living in the metro area and there may already be 3,000 militarized federal agents occupying our city. An additional 1,500 active duty troops from the army’s 11th Airborne Division are on standby, ready for deployment to Minnesota.

Let’s put that in perspective. During the last year of his first term, President Donald Trump negotiated a full withdrawal from Afghanistan, which at the time was a nation of 39 million people, to be completed in early 2021. In 2019, there were between 12,000 and 13,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan. At the start of the Biden administration, there were only 2,500 U.S. soldiers remaining there.

I say this because the Trump administration has decided to send more armed federal agents to the Twin Cities than Joe Biden inherited in Afghanistan. That’s too many armed federal agents under any circumstances.

Two U.S. citizens have already been killed who would be alive today absent the occupation. Many U.S. citizens have been detained and physically abused, and many more such instances have been endured by legally authorized immigrants.

We are about to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. The Founders of the United States were intensely suspicious of standing armies in peace time. If they were British citizens, the colonists asked, why were the Red Coats stationed in Boston? They included, among their reasons for dissolving their ties to King George, the following:

“He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.”

In 1787, at the Constitutional Convention, future President James Madison made the following observation:

“A standing military force, with an overgrown executive will not long be safe companions to liberty. The means of defense against foreign danger, have been always the instruments of tyranny at home. Among the Romans it was a standing maxim to excite a war, whenever a revolt was apprehended. Throughout all Europe, the armies kept up under the pretext of defending, have enslaved the people.”

It was clear to the nation’s Founders that federal forces were meant to fight foreign enemies and defend the United States from other nations. Among their first actions after the end of the Revolutionary War was to disband the Continental Army. Federal forces were never meant to occupy American cities and rural areas.

Some might suggest that the millions of undocumented immigrants in the United States constitute a foreign invasion. Hogwash. The undocumented here come from many nations and arrived for as many reasons. It was not and is not an organized foreign invasion.

U.S. federal forces are meant to protect us from foreign threats, not to occupy the streets and farms of America in unmarked cars and wearing masks and picking up people without judicial warrants based on how they look, or speak, or what neighborhood they live in, or how they get to work, or where they work.

What is happening in Minnesota is un-American. It would make the Founders wonder what has become of their project. After 250 years, we now resemble the British more than we do the Patriots, except the Red Coats had the courage to show their faces.

Jeff Kolnick is a retired professor of history. He is a founder of the Fannie Lou Hamer National Institute on Citizenship and Democracy and he served his faculty union as a negotiator and local president.

The Videos of Alex Pretti’s Murder vs Outright Lies by Bovino and Noem

Top officials—despite what anyone with two good eyes could see for themselves—immediately activated Donald Trump’s authoritarian playbook: lie, smear, double-down, and cover-up.

Footage shows Border Patrol agent drawing his weapon moments before shooting 

Alex Pretti dead.
(Photo: Screengrab via CNN)

Steven Harper
Jan 27, 2026

Common Dreams

I was born and raised in Minnesota. One of my childhood homes in south Minneapolis is less than a mile from the scene of Saturday’s brutal Border Patrol killing. The victim was 37-year-old Alex Pretti, a US citizen born in Illinois and a registered ICU nurse at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs hospital.

Pretti’s crime: He was “Minnesota nice.”


Before proceeding further, please watch this New York Times video.

But be warned, the footage is violent, graphic, and disturbing:

Footage and analyis of Alex Pretti killing

Similarly, a detailed CNN compilation of bystander videos confirms that Border Patrol officers took Pretti’s gun before shooting him an estimated 10 times:



And USA Today also offered a second-by-second analysis:



Now contrast what you just observed with the Trump administration’s four-step playbook for avoiding accountability: Lie, double-down, deflect, and cover-up.

Step #1: Lie

Almost immediately, the Department of Homeland Security issued a false statement exonerating Border Patrol officers and blaming Pretti for his death:“At 9:05 AM CT,… an individual approached US Border Patrol officers with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun….”

No. Pretti approached the officers with a cellphone as he filmed their encounter with two protesters. Then he tried to aid a protester whom officers had shoved to the ground.“The officers attempted to disarm the suspect, but the armed suspect violently resisted.”

No. The officers didn’t even know that Pretti had a gun until seven of them had already swarmed, pepper-sprayed, and wrestled him to the ground. Then one of the officers exclaimed with surprise, “He has a gun!”

At that point, several officers were on top of Pretti. A gun matching the description of the one that DHS said Pretti owned (and for which he had a permit in the open-carry state of Minnesota) emerged from the group. After Pretti had been disarmed, an officer shot him in the back at close range. As the officer continued firing, another officer shot Pretti as he lay on the ground.

The agents fired a total of at least 10 shots.

Step #2: Double Down

During a six-minute press appearance, Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino doubled-down on the lies. He said that an “individual approached Border Patrol agents with a nine-millimeter semi-automatic handgun.”

No. It was a cellphone.

“The agents attempted to disarm this individual, but he violently resisted.”

No. Pretti was on the ground when officers noticed his gun and took it.

“Fearing for his life and lives and safety of fellow officers, a Border Patrol agent fired defensive shots.”

No. Two agents fired a total of 10 shots as Pretti lay on the street with his hands over his head.

“The suspect also had two loaded magazines and no accessible ID.”

I don’t know what an “accessible ID” is, but Minnesota is an open-carry state and Pretti had a permit to own the gun.

“This looked like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.”

There is no evidence supporting that claim.

“The officer was highly trained and had been serving as a Border Patrol agent for eight years. The officer has extensive training as a range safety officer and less lethal officer…”

Two officers fired a total of 10 shots at a man who had been disarmed. What about the second shooter? And what training recommends firing 10 shots at a defenseless US citizen lying on the ground?

Bovino then took questions but refused to answer them:

Q: “When did agents learn that he had a gun, and did he ever brandish that weapon at them?

Bovino: “This situation again is evolving. This situation is under investigation. Those facts will come to light. This particular incident is being investigated, just like we investigate other similar incidents like we’ve done over the past several years. It’s in the hands of professionals as facts will come to light.”

The videos show that Pretti never brandished a weapon at anyone. As for an investigation, the federal government had refused to allow Minnesota officials to participate after an officer killed Renee Nicole Good two weeks earlier. But this time, Minnesota officials took two extraordinary steps: the state obtained a warrant to search the public street where the officers had killed Pretti; and a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order barring federal officials from altering or destroying evidence.

Q: “Did he have an additional gun, or was the gun removed from the scene?... From the video, it doesn’t seem like he pulled a gun on anyone…. When did the gun come out?”

Bovino: “Again, this situation is evolving. This is under investigation. Those facts will come to light…”

The gun never “came out” until Border Patrol officers discovered and removed it after forcing Pretti to the ground.

Step #3: Deflect – Blame the Victim…and Anyone Else

Trump’s deputy chief of staff and the architect of Trump’s immigration policy, Stephen Miller, tripled down on the lies. Others quickly followed.Miller said Pretti was a “domestic terrorist” and “would-be assassin.”Trump blamed Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D) and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D) for “inciting insurrection.” He posted that they were leading a “subversive effort” against law enforcement “the likes of which we have not seen, probably, since the Civil War.”Attorney General Pam Bondi offered Walz a deal. One of her demands revealed the true motive behind Trump’s aggressive immigration surge in Minnesota: leverage. Trump is looking ahead at the November midterm elections, doesn’t like what he sees, and is preparing to upend them. That’s why Bondi told Walz to turn over the state’s voter rolls and maybe it “will help bring back law and order to Minnesota.” (A few days earlier, Trump’s Justice Department had already subpoenaed numerous Minnesota officials, including Walz, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, and the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul.)Homeland Security Secretary Kristia Noem parroted Bovino’s lies that Pretti “arrived at the scene to inflict maximum damage on individuals and to kill law enforcement.” She said that her assertion of “domestic terrorism” was just “the facts.”Vice President JD Vance posted that the events in Minneapolis were “engineered chaos” caused by “far left agitators, working with local authorities.”On Fox News, FBI Director Kash Patel characterized Pretti as a violent actor.

Step #4: Repeat – and Cover-Up as Needed

Trump’s minions had falsely smeared Renee Nicole Good as a “domestic terrorist” too. Then the Justice Department announced that the civil rights division would not even investigate whether her killer had used excessive force—as it typically has done in such situations. Instead, the Department would investigate the victim and her partner. Days later, six senior career federal prosecutors in Minnesota resigned over the issue.

Noem announced that DHS would lead the Pretti investigation—with assistance from the FBI.

Bovino’s “Choices”

In a press conference on Sunday, January 25, Bovino lectured Minnesotans on “choices,” suggesting that Pretti’s choices led to his death. But Pretti chose only to exercise his First and Second Amendment rights. For that, Trump’s newly expanded paramilitary organization chose to execute him in broad daylight. Bovino, Trump, and Trump’s sycophants chose to lie about it.

In the aftermath of Pretti’s killing, thousands of Minnesotans also made a choice: In sub-zero temperatures, they protested the federal government’s aggressive occupation of Minneapolis that had led to yet another death. They know that the whole world is watching. And if I know anything about Minnesotans, they will prevail.


Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

Steven Harper
Steven J. Harper is an attorney, adjunct professor at Northwestern University Law School, and author of several books, including Crossing Hoffa -- A Teamster's Story and The Lawyer Bubble -- A Profession in Crisis. He has been a regular columnist for Moyers on Democracy, Dan Rather's News and Guts, and The American Lawyer. Follow him at https://thelawyerbubble.com.
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Trump Admin Opposes Order Banning Destruction of Evidence in Pretti Killing

“It seems we may be looking at a bona fide cover-up,” said one reporter.


Agents from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigate the location where Alex Pretti was shot and killed on January 27, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)


Stephen Prager
Jan 27, 2026
COMMON DREAMS


As it attempts to shield immigration agents from responsibility for killing Alex Pretti, the Trump administration is asking a court to dismiss an order preventing the destruction of evidence in the case.

Shortly after a gang of agents shot and killed the 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse in Minneapolis on Saturday, agents reportedly rounded up witnesses to the killing and transported them to the nearby Whipple Building, where they were detained for several hours, according to a review of court affidavits by CBS News.

Agents also ordered local police to leave the scene of the shooting, but the order was ignored by Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara, who instructed local officers to preserve the crime scene.

US District Judge Eric Tostrud swiftly issued an order barring federal agents from “destroying or altering evidence” related to the shooting, including evidence “removed from the scene” or “taken into [the federal government’s] exclusive custody.”

It came following a request from Drew Evans, the superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA), who said his officers had been turned away by agents with the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The Trump administration has already preemptively declared that agents’ shooting of Pretti was justifiable, as it has done in at least 16 DHS shooting cases, according to an investigation published Tuesday by the Washington Post.

Members of the administration have stated that Pretti was a “domestic terrorist” and an “assassin” who intended to “massacre law enforcement,” despite ample video evidence of the encounter leading to his death showing nothing of the sort.

On Monday, lawyers for the Department of Justice filed a legal motion, first reported on by the New York Times, opposing Tostrud’s order preventing federal agencies from destroying evidence. The agencies, the DOJ argued, “are already obligated by agency policy to preserve the evidence at issue.”

“While it’s not uncommon for the Trump administration to oppose judges’ orders against it, this case seems particularly unnecessary—and suspicious,” wrote Edith Olmsted in the New Republic.

Radley Balko, a journalist who covers criminal justice, pondered why the administration would need to oppose the motion at all if it was making no effort to destroy evidence.

“In a sane country, the DOJ response to a motion asking a judge to stop the government from destroying evidence after federal officers shot and killed a man in broad daylight would be, ‘Of course, we wouldn’t destroy evidence. We agree with this motion,’” he wrote on social media. “That is not what happened.”

The motion comes as the administration is shielding many other pieces of information from the public, leaving the series of events to be pieced together through video footage shot by bystanders.

DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin has said multiple agents were recording body camera footage during the shooting, but has announced no plans to release it.

Meanwhile, the administration has refused to publicly name the agents involved in the shooting, with the recently sacked Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino asserting that publicizing their names was tantamount to “doxing.”

“Clearly, DHS is taking unprecedented actions to control the investigation into the second broad daylight killing of a civilian by its agents in just the past month,” Olmsted wrote. “When coupled with Customs and Border Patrol’s efforts to shield its officers from accountability, and Trump officials’ desperation to change the subject, it seems we may be looking at a bona fide cover-up.”

'Politically toxic' Trump has become a liability for far-right European fascists: report

Tom Boggioni
January 27, 2026 
RAW STORY


Activists in Germany protest at vigil for Hitler (Photo by Christian Mang for Reuters)

The alliance between Donald Trump and far-right nationalist groups in Europe has become frayed to the point of snapping due to his designs on occupying Greenland and the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro Moros.

According to the New York Times, European far-right parties have historically grounded their political platforms on national sovereignty, particularly opposing immigration. However, Trump's contempt for European nations has exceeded their tolerance.

While the Trump-nationalist relationship has always been characterized as "awkward," European nationalist leaders have recently adopted a more confrontational stance toward the president. His lengthy speech at Davos intensified existing tensions.

Jordan Bardella, president of France's far-right National Rally party, characterized Trump's Greenland remarks as "unacceptable" and labeled tariff threats as "blackmail."

Nigel Farage, leader of Britain's far-right Reform UK party and longtime Trump ally, described the Greenland threats as a "very hostile act." Giorgia Meloni, Italy's right-wing prime minister, typically viewed as Trump-friendly, rejected his claims about European military contributions in Afghanistan.

Justin Logan of the libertarian Cato Institute explained the backlash: "Whatever the AfD or Rassemblement National believe about civilizational erasure and migration, they're not for the American annexation of a big chunk of Europe."

Trump faces additional challenges among far-right Europeans who already harbored suspicions toward America. Polling data shows substantial shares of far-right-aligned voters in Britain, France, and Germany viewed Trump negatively before the recent developments.

Trump's unpopularity is particularly acute in France, where association with the president carries political risk and he is described as "politically toxic." Alice Weidel, a leader of Germany's extremist AfD party, directly accused Trump of violating a fundamental campaign promise by interfering in other countries through the Venezuelan invasion.

You can read more here.

FRENEMIES

Not allies, not enemies: Britain’s ties with China


By AFP
January 26, 2026


Britain's Keir Starmer is in China this week, marking the first visit by a UK prime minister in eight years - Copyright POOL/AFP Jordan Pettitt

Britain’s Keir Starmer is in China this week, marking the first visit by a UK prime minister in eight years.

It is the latest in a string of Western leaders seeking a rapprochement with Beijing, as US President Donald Trump turns on traditional allies.

Starmer hopes to boost trade after years of strained relations, but must balance this with security concerns raised in the UK over a potential threat posed by China.

Here are the three key questions surrounding the visit:



– Where do relations stand? –



London and Beijing enjoyed what they describe as the “Golden Era” a decade ago — a time when then-prime minister David Cameron and Chinese President Xi Jinping famously enjoyed beers together at a British pub.

But relations soured since 2020, when Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong and cracked down on pro-democracy activists in the former British colony.

Human rights abuses, alleged spying and cyber attacks, and China’s perceived support for Russia’s war in Ukraine also strained ties.

Nevertheless, China remains Britain’s third-largest trading partner, though UK exports to the East Asian country plummeted 52.6 percent year-on-year in 2025, according to British government statistics.

And in December, Starmer said that it would be a “dereliction of duty” not to engage with Beijing.



– Why is Starmer visiting now? –



Relations began to thaw soon after Starmer took the helm in 2024 following a closed-door meeting with Xi in Brazil in which the UK prime minister said Britain would look to cooperate with China on issues such as climate change.

But a protracted row over Chinese plans to build a vast new embassy in London complicated plans for Starmer to visit.

Beijing purchased the building, on the site of the former Royal Mint, in 2018, but opponents argued that the “mega embassy” will be used for espionage and pressure rights activists in Britain.

The plan was finally approved on Tuesday and made way for China’s invitation to Starmer with a UK government spokesperson saying intelligence agencies have plans to “manage any risks”.

Starmer’s trip also comes as Britain faces a rift with its closest ally, the United States, following Trump’s bid to seize Greenland and his brief threat of tariffs against Britain and other NATO allies.

With Trump increasingly tearing apart the global order, “China might not be an ally, but it is also not an enemy”, Kerry Brown, director of the Lau China Institute at King’s College London told AFP.

Facing a lacklustre British economy, Starmer will also be looking to seal trade deals to boost growth at home.



– What’s on the table? –



Starmer will arrive with an entourage of industry executives hoping to promote British business through a UK-China CEO Council, a body that has lain dormant for years.

Created in 2018, the council once brought business and industry executives from both countries together when relations were in their “golden era”.

Starmer is also expected to raise the case of Hong Kong media mogul and democracy supporter Jimmy Lai, a British citizen and founder of the now-shuttered Apple Daily tabloid.

The 78-year-old is facing years in prison after being found guilty of collusion charges in December under the new national security law.

Xi and Starmer are also likely to discuss Ukraine, where Beijing is accused of enabling Russia’s invasion through its close economic ties to Moscow.

The visit will represent a “shift toward managed re-engagement rather than renewed strategic trust”, according to Jinghan Zeng, an international relations scholar at City University of Hong Kong.

While progress could be made on climate change, trade, and people-to-people exchanges, “concrete outcomes will probably be modest”, he said.

Canada’s Marineland gets ‘conditional approval’ to sell whales to US

By AFP
January 26, 2026


An aerial view of belugas at Canada's now-shuttered Marineland theme park - Copyright AFP/File Angelos TZORTZINIS

Canada’s federal government on Monday gave Marineland conditional approval to sell its 30 imperilled beluga whales to parks in the United States, after rejecting an export request to China.

Marineland, a once lucrative tourist attraction near Niagara Falls, has said it is in deep financial trouble, cannot afford to care for the whales, and will be forced to euthanize them if it can’t find them a new home.

The park has been mired in controversy for years. Twenty animals, including 19 belugas, have died there since 2019, according to a tally by The Canadian Press.

Marineland, which is closed to visitors, thought it had a solution last year when it forged a plan to sell the whales to the Chimelong Ocean Kingdom, a lavish theme park in China.

Fisheries Minister Joanne Thompson rejected that plan, saying it would perpetuate the whales’ exploitation.

Marineland presented Ottawa with a new plan last week to sell the 30 whales to a series of parks in the United States.

“Today, I met with Marineland regarding their proposal to export the remaining whales to US facilities,” Thompson said in a statement.

“I provided conditional approval,” Thompson said, adding that final permits would be granted once Marineland provides additional information.

Marineland has said all the beluga deaths at the park resulted from natural causes, but animal welfare officials from the province of Ontario have been investigating the park for several years.