Recognizing the overwhelming unpopularity of the Administration’s response to the killing of Alex Pretti, Trump was miffed. Not so much that he disagreed with the tactics of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and CBT Commandant-at-Large Greg Bovino, as lie and deny has long been Trump’s go-to as he was taught by his sensei, Roy Cohn. But what possible reason could there be for Trump to suffer the slings and arrows of people unwilling to bend to his vision after having seen all the videos when he had people to throw under the bus.
Bye, Bovino. Hide your puppies, as Noem gets nasty when she’s on thin ice. As for Stephen Miller, who knows?
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, notably did not defend the rhetoric of White House officials, including Stephen Miller, the deputy chief of staff, and Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, who were the most vocal in spreading false accusations against the victim, Alex Pretti.
Enter, the head of ICE and Noem’s competition for Trump’s love, Tom Homan.
Hours before news of Mr. Bovino’s impending departure circulated, Mr. Trump dispatched his border chief, Tom Homan, to oversee the immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis. He also backed off his attacks on Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota after a phone call with him.
Homan, the guy best known for taking $50 grand in a brown paper Cavo bag from the FBI and then having his investigation squashed by Ka$h Patel, who saw nothing wrong with that, is understood to favor targeting aliens accused or convicted of crimes rather than random round-ups at Target or going to door-to-door to demand papers from American citizens.
Mr. Trump said on social media that Mr. Walz was “happy that Tom Homan was going to Minnesota.” Mr. Trump announced earlier in the day that Mr. Homan would be his personal representative overseeing ICE operations in the state.
It was a sharp contrast from his weekend pronunciations, in which the president blamed Mr. Walz and other Minnesota Democrats for Mr. Pretti’s death. Those remarks echoed his comments after the fatal shooting by federal agents of a Minneapolis woman, Renee Good, this month.
There was no chance Trump would simply pull out of Minneapolis, which would mean that his surge was a failure and that he conceded defeat. That was a bridge too far.
As he hailed operations in Washington and other cities as a “tremendous success,” Mr. Trump said crime in Minnesota was “way down.” He added, “Both Governor Walz and I want to make it better!”
Governor Tim Walz, on the other hand, called his conversation with Trump “constructive,” though hardly an agreement that his operations were a “tremendous success.”
According to the governor’s office, Mr. Walz told Mr. Trump that impartial investigations into the two killings were needed, and he called for a reduction in the number of federal agents in Minnesota. Mr. Trump agreed to ensure a fair investigation and to look into reducing the number of agents, the governor’s office said.
At this point, it would be unsurprising if an investigation into the killing of Alex Pretti conceded that it was a bad shoot by the CBP agent, given that it can be blamed on the agent, Bovino and Noem, thus relieving Trump of any responsibility. But while that prong of Walz’s demands might be doable, can federal agents under Homan’s direction shift the outrage over the tactics employed in Minnesota so that Operation Metro Surge will be acceptable to both Minnesotans and the governor and mayor of Minneapolis?
But even as Mr. Trump tried to mend fences with Mr. Walz, Ms. Leavitt continued the administration’s previous strategy of arguing that the governor and Democrats in Minnesota bore the blame for the chaos. “This tragedy occurred as a result of a deliberate and hostile resistance by Democrat leaders in Minnesota for weeks,” she said.
Will Homan somehow manage to make the government’s plan for mass deportations acceptable to the public? Or is Trump trying to put lipstick (apologies to lipstick for the comparison) on a pig?
*Tuesday Talk rules apply.
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He’s trying to put bronzer on a pig this time. Make everything seem chill, sunny, warm and in the high 70s. Ain’t gonna work. People are up to here, there and everywhere in this State that gave 47 his 47. The barn door swung back hard here and 47 knows it. Bye bye midterms.
This attempt to reboot the surge is going to be a disaster. First, because it’s too late to pretend that what happened is going to be easily forgotten. Second, because Homan is every bit as bad as Bovino when it comes to abusing his authority and caring nothing about violating people’s constitutional rights.
If anything, this should be worse for Trump, as his “solution” is just as bad as the problem, confirming the worst about what he’s doing.
IIUC, Homan has disagreed (vehemently from what I’ve read) w/ Noem and Bovino on the tactics used.
I’m not certain that I have this right, or rather that those I’ve read got it right, but allegedly Homan favors targeted raids (actually going after those they have reason to believe to be violent criminals) rather than the sort of sweeps/ round ups favored by Noem/ Bovino. So, w/ Homan in charge, I’d expect less of a presence on the streets and fewer occasions where they seem to be seeking confrontation.
JMO, but I think that the administration is motivated (at least in part) by a desire to show that Minneapolis, as a blue city, is out of control and can’t be counted on to hold free and fair elections. Obviously, the federal government will need to step in to remedy this. (Before you dismiss this as a conspiracy theory, as I likely would have in other circumstances, reflect that Bondi has suggested that if Minnesota were to turn over voter rolls/ records ICE would move on.)
As I’m writing this, I’m listening to someone describe ICE agents doing “drive by pepper spraying of protesters” in Minneapolis. My guess is that this is an example of “Bovino tactics” that Homan wouldn’t allow/ approve of. (Not that I’m a fan of Homan, just pointing out the difference in tactics intended to create chaos and what I hope will be, at least somewhat more, professional behavior.)
Good tsar, bad boyars. Everything popular is Trump; everything unpopular is an underling trying to sabotage Trump. It’s the narcissist’s way mixed with some raw authoritarianism.
That didn’t happen.
And if it did, it wasn’t that bad.
And if it was, that’s not a big deal.
And if it is, that’s not my fault.
And if it was, I didn’t mean it.
And if I did, you deserved it.
The Narcissist’s Prayer by Dayna Craig
This “operation” has been chiefly a publicity stunt from the outset. Even if one were to take seriously the agency claim to have arrested 10,000 illegal aliens in Minnesota, it is an inconsequential effort in light of the 14,000,000 illegal aliens estimated to be within the United States. What it really shows is that the administration’s most unrestrained activities have been highly ineffective.
The only way I see Tom Homan actually cooling things down in Minnesota for more than a week or two is if Gov. Walz keeps delivering him DQ or Culvers bags stuffed with cash. I’m sure it’ll be quieter for a week or two in terms of clashes with protestors and maybe a couple of agents will get thrown under the bus for shooting white people, but they aren’t going to stop kicking down Hmong and Somali American doors and rounding up little kids to use as bait.
Trump may have rebuked Noem and Bovino over sympathetic white peple being killed, but he didn’t put Bondi in timeout nor walk back her explicit demands for voter rolls and other concessions from Minnesota in exchange for stopping the surge.
Homan will wear a regular suit instead of a fascist costume and they’ll need to adjust the podium up quite a bit, but nothing else is going to change.