President Donald Trump is not a man of nuance, and so as a result, many fall into the trap of concluding he can’t see the big picture. The most common mistaken assumption about him is that people think he’s reactionary, when the opposite is true. You don’t get the peace agreements he’s gotten, the concessions he’s won on his tariff strategy, or so many other things he’s accomplished if you wing it.
Consider all of this and how uncharacteristically quiet the president has been on the anti-ICE movement in Minneapolis in recent weeks. While he hasn’t avoided the topic, he hasn’t allowed it to dominate his narrative and the media coverage of the White House.
More importantly, while there has been a good deal of noise coming out of Minneapolis, and even more confusion by design coming from the Minnesota governor, Democrat politicians, and the left, in the wake of the Michael Pretti shooting, the very measured response coming from the White House may have been overlooked.
On Truth Social, Trump said, “We’re looking, we’re reviewing everything and will come out with a determination.”
The president did take issue with Pretti for carrying a handgun while engaging violently with ICE agents. But Trump seemed to have a larger issue with the larger issue, which is local police going AWOL with so much volatility happening in their midst.
Alongside a photo of a gun, Trump posted: “This is the gunman’s gun, loaded (with two additional full magazines!), and ready to go – What is that all about? Where are the local Police? Why weren’t they allowed to protect ICE Officers? The Mayor and the Governor called them off? It is stated that many of these Police were not allowed to do their job, that ICE had to protect themselves — Not an easy thing to do!”
In a separate but related matter, Trump has assigned border czar Tom Homan to Minneapolis and said that he will report directly to the president, which appears to be a vote of no confidence for Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem.
But there’s even more to it than that, as our own Catherine Salgado reported:
He then turned to a separate but connected issue from Minnesota, one of the reasons that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is there in force. ‘Separately, a major investigation is going on with respect to the massive 20 Billion Dollar, Plus, Welfare Fraud that has taken place in Minnesota, and is at least partially responsible for the violent organized protests going on in the streets,’ Trump said.
It’s not worth getting into a debate over whether Trump plays “4D chess” at this point, but one thing is clear: He not only connects the dots, but he has an innate ability to prioritize so that he doesn’t allow some issues to diminish his chances of achieving his larger objective.
In this case, Trump knows the Somali corruption is so vast and widespread, and it implicates so many on the left, that it has to be his primary focus through all of this. If he can make an impact on the Somali corruption scandal, he can address waste, fraud, and abuse, but he can also address election integrity, the dark money flow to leftist causes, and perhaps even the funding of much of the protesting you see. Not to mention the potential for some high-profile leftists to face justice.
While the ICE arrests and the anti-ICE activity are serious and can become a disaster if left unchecked, Trump can’t let that derail his larger focus.
Enter Tom Homan, whom Trump hopes will get things in better order on the ICE side of the equation. You have to know that with Homan on the ground in Minnesota, this signals that Trump has no intention of pulling out of the state or appeasing the left.
So how is all of this playing in America? Our Scott Pinsker covered that this morning.
Here’s a (very) early opinion poll:
After federal immigration agents on Saturday shot and killed a Minneapolis resident for the second time this month, more Americans now say they would support abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) than say they would oppose eliminating the agency. A majority of Americans say ICE’s tactics are too forceful and about half say they strongly disapprove of the way the agency is handling its job, according to a YouGov Poll conducted hours after the shooting. More Americans approve than disapprove of protests against ICE.
With so many moving parts, it’s important to take stock. Trump has sent his most reliable soldier to Minnesota to take control of ICE work in that state, signaling ICE isn’t going anywhere, but that Trump wants to get a better handle on things.
He’s keeping his focus on the Somali corruption scandal, and that will take time and resources before we start to see perp walks.
Meanwhile, the country is getting restless, but contrary to what the legacy media wants you to think, it’s not in a panic.
Before the weekend’s shooting, a recent Rasmussen Reports survey revealed that almost two-thirds of the country supports Trump’s efforts to round up and deport illegal aliens. This includes most independents, over 33% of Democrats, and almost two-thirds of Hispanics. Support among both black and white voters is the same, meaning this is an issue that cuts across all Demographics, and Trump is still winning.
You will not see this on the nightly news or in your news feeds. The legacy media does not want you to know this. Democrat politicians, activists, and the entire left want to demoralize you through non-stop stories and viral videos that suggest the country wants Trump gone over his handling of illegal immigrant deportation, when that’s not true.
The people are seeing through all of this. The Rasmussen findings attest to this. Americans want border enforcement, and they want illegals to go home.
If all you did was watch CNN, read the New York Times, or even relied on your local ABC News affiliate, you’re only going to get a partial picture that’s designed to infuriate you over Trump. But since Americans get so much of their news and information from a variety of sources, they’ve been able to see past the legacy media, and most know what’s going on.
But don’t breathe too easily. The Wall Street Journal issued the results of its latest poll, and there are two questions on which to focus: 1) “Would you say that things in the country are going in the right direction or headed in the wrong direction?” and 2) “All other things being equal, if the election for Congress were held today, would you be more likely to vote for the Republican candidate or the Democratic candidate for Congress?”
When comparing Jan. 13, 2026, to July 20, 2025, the results for the first question are unchanged. Thirty-nine percent feel the country’s going in the right direction. Roughly 55% feel it’s going in the wrong direction.
On that second question, 43% of respondents said they’d vote Republican, while 47% said they’d vote Democrat. These numbers have been very close for the past three times the poll was conducted.
What does all of this mean?
It means that the public can distinguish between how we round people up and deport them versus whether they should be deported. Subtlety. Trump gets it. The left and the media pretend they don’t get it, and they don’t want you to get it.
It also means that the Republicans will have to up their game in terms of how they sell their plans before they execute them. And they will need to do better at explaining their actions when they take them and afterward, so that the public sees it with the right framing. Otherwise, the left will do that for them.
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