As governor of South Dakota, Kristi Noem launched an anti-drug campaign with the tagline: “Meth: We’re on it.” Noem’s message control has not obviously sharpened as Donald Trump’s homeland security secretary. On Saturday, Noem insisted that the slain Alex Pretti was “brandishing” a gun with the intent of attacking federal officers. Anyone watching the Minneapolis videos would have seen a man shot 10 times in the back after trying to protect a woman from being manhandled. Noem nevertheless instructed Americans to ignore what they saw with their own eyes.
As goes Noem, so goes the rest of Trump’s team. Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff and self-appointed bad cop, called Pretti a “domestic terrorist”. This echoed what the administration said about Renée Good, a 37-year-old woman, who was also shot dead at point blank range in Minneapolis two weeks ago. Though her vehicle was turning at a slow speed, and the officer shot her through the side window, the Trump crew said she was using her car as a weapon. After Pretti’s murder, Trump’s defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, told ICE agents in a post on X that “we have your back 100%. You are SAVING the country.”
Which raises the question, with autocrats like these, who needs democrats? It is possible that actual Democrats will miss the open goal that Trump has presented to them. He came to office with immigration as his strongest issue. Americans wanted violent criminals deported and border control enforced. Instead, Trump has turned ICE into a menacing paramilitary that detains five-year-olds, hauls elderly men from their homes, snatches mothers from day care centres and executes non-violent protesters. The US public is turning sharply against these methods.