The White House on Monday appeared to soften its rhetoric surrounding the recent killing of ICU nurse Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis, after its initial response spurred widespread calls to de-escalate ongoing federal deportation efforts in Minnesota.
“Nobody in the White House, including President [Donald] Trump, wants to see people getting hurt or killed in America’s streets,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters during a briefing.
That includes Pretti and Renee Nicole Good — another U.S. citizen who was fatally shot by federal agents in Minneapolis — “and the brave men and women of federal law enforcement and the many Americans who have been victimized at the hands of illegal alien criminals,” Leavitt said.
Trump “does not want any Americans to lose their lives in the streets of America,” Leavitt later added.
The statement from the White House, which signaled sympathy for the two people killed during chaotic altercations with immigration officers, contrasted sharply with how some administration officials first reacted to the shootings.
Stephen Miller, Trump’s homeland security adviser, had called Pretti a “domestic terrorist” and accused him of being an “assassin.”
Greg Bovino, Border Patrol commander at large, claimed Pretti may have been intending to “massacre law enforcement.”
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, shortly after Pretti’s killing, claimed he had been “brandishing” a weapon and that he had reacted “violently” to officers’ attempts to disarm him. Later analyses from multiple news outlets found many of those claims were contradicted by the available video evidence.
Leavitt, asked Monday about Miller’s comments, said, “I have not heard the president characterize Mr. Pretti in that way.”
Leavitt’s comments came one day after Trump, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, would not directly say if he believed shooting Pretti was the right thing to do.
“We’re looking, we’re reviewing everything and will come out with a determination,” Trump told the newspaper.
Earlier Monday, Trump announced on Truth Social that border czar Tom Homan will head to Minnesota on Monday night to manage U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s on-the-ground operations there.
“Tom is tough but fair, and will report directly to me,” Trump wrote.
Leavitt said in a separate social media post that Homan will coordinate with officials leading ongoing investigations into fraud schemes in Minnesota.
Trump’s post said Homan has not previously been involved in Minnesota, where thousands of federal agents have been deployed in recent weeks to carry out the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation agenda.
The Good and Pretti killings have stoked massive protests, heated denunciations of ICE from Democrats and pleas for de-escalation from business leaders.
As Homan takes the reins in Minnesota, Noem and other administration officials face mounting criticism, including from gun rights groups and some conservatives, over their leadership and rhetoric in Minneapolis.
Fox News reported Sunday that some senior officials involved in immigration enforcement have “grown increasingly uneasy & frustrated [with] some of the claims & narratives DHS pushed” following the latest shooting.
Axios reported last month that Noem and Homan have a tense and acrimonious working relationship. Trump has praised both officials.
Noem, in a statement on X, said Trump’s decision to tap Homan for Minnesota is “good news for peace, safety, and accountability in Minneapolis.”
“I have worked closely with Tom over the last year and he has been a major asset to our team— his experience and insight will help us in our wide-scale fraud investigations, which have robbed Americans, and will help us to remove even more public safety threats and violent criminal illegal aliens off the of streets of Minneapolis,” Noem said.
“We continue to call on the leadership in Minnesota to allow for state and local partnership in our public safety mission,” she said.
The president’s switch-up also comes as his polling numbers on immigration, and his overall approval rating, have declined, according to recent surveys from The New York Times and Siena University and others.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll published Monday afternoon found just 39% of Americans approve of Trump’s immigration efforts, marking his lowest reading in the survey since returning to the White House.
In another Truth Social post later Monday morning, Trump said Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz called him and asked to work together in the state.
“It was a very good call, and we, actually, seemed to be on a similar wavelength,” Trump wrote. “I told Governor Walz that I would have Tom Homan call him, and that what we are looking for are any and all Criminals that they have in their possession.”
“The Governor, very respectfully, understood that, and I will be speaking to him in the near future. He was happy that Tom Homan was going to Minnesota, and so am I!” Trump added.
The positive words for Walz telegraphed the shift in tone that the White House would later employ from the briefing room lectern. Previously, Trump administration officials have regularly castigated the Democratic governor, and even accused him of helping stoke the social strife in Minneapolis that led to the shootings.
To be sure, Leavitt in Monday’s briefing still laid blame for the unrest in Minnesota at Walz’s feet.
“This tragedy occurred as a result of a deliberate and hostile resistance by Democrat leaders in Minnesota,” she said. “For weeks, Governor Walz and [Minneapolis Mayor Jacob] Frey and other elected Democrats were spreading lies about federal law enforcement officers who are risking their lives daily to remove the worst criminal illegal aliens from our streets.”
The government has reportedly subpoenaed Walz and other Minnesota Democrats as part of an investigation into possible obstruction of federal law enforcement operations in the state.
Walz’s office called the conversation with Trump “productive,” saying in a statement that the governor “made the case that we need impartial investigations of the Minneapolis shootings involving federal agents.”
DHS, rather than the FBI, will conduct the investigation into the shooting of Pretti by the department’s own officials, MS NOW reported Sunday, citing officials.
Trump agreed to talk to DHS about “ensuring the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is able to conduct an independent investigation, as would ordinarily be the case,” according to Walz’s office.
“The President also agreed to look into reducing the number of federal agents in Minnesota and working with the state in a more coordinated fashion on immigration enforcement regarding violent criminals,” the statement said.