Rand Paul Calls Out Trump for Response to Alex Pretti Shooting

Even Republicans can see that there’s nothing normal about how the Trump administration has handled Alex Pretti’s killing.

Republican Senator Rand Paul took to social media Tuesday to highlight ICE and CBP’s long leash Tuesday, pointing out on X that no other law enforcement agency would permit offending officers to walk free after an extrajudicial killing.

“Local police routinely put officers involved in deadly shootings on administrative leave until an independent investigation is concluded,” Paul wrote. “That should happen immediately.”

He further scolded the Department of Homeland Security for its attempts to write off Pretti as a violent criminal, arguing that the agency had failed to accomplish the bare minimum to calm the tensions boiling among the American public.

“I can’t recall ever hearing a police chief immediately describing the victim as a ‘domestic terrorist’ or a ‘would-be assassin,’” Paul continued. “For calm to be restored, an independent investigation is the least that should be done.”

Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse who worked in Veterans Affairs, was slain Saturday while he protested the death of another U.S. citizen, Renee Nicole Good, who was shot by agents weeks earlier.

Pretti was assisting a woman who had been shoved by a masked officer, when he was grappled by several agents and thrown to the ground. At least seven agents held him down or knelt on his back, and another agent drew his gun and shot Pretti. Widely circulated video of the incident that was filmed from multiple angles captured audio of 10 gunshots ringing out within five seconds.

In the immediate aftermath of Pretti’s death, top Homeland Security officials attempted to induce national amnesia, retroactively labeling him a domestic terrorist while insisting that he had “approached officers with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun,” forcing officers to fire “defensive shots.” They also blamed Pretti for lawfully owning a gun, suggesting that his death was justified since he had a weapon on him.

Pretti’s and Good’s needless deaths—and their dystopian handling by Trump officials—have made conservatives and their longtime donors recoil from Donald Trump’s immigration agenda for the first time since he returned to office. Wary of public backlash, Republicans are attempting to remap their routes toward midterm elections, steering clear of the polarizing subject. The National Rifle Association, meanwhile, made an unexpected strike against the administration when it tore into Customs and Border Protection commander Greg Bovino for suggesting that Second Amendment rights “don’t count” for protesters.

By Monday, it appeared that Trump was finally grasping the need to overhaul the administration’s messaging. He announced that border czar Tom Homan would seize control of ICE and CBP operations in Minneapolis, effectively ousting Bovino in the process.

But not everybody had caught wind of the makeover: DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin still wasn’t willing to backtrack on the department’s smear campaign against Pretti during an interview with Fox News Tuesday, sidestepping questions by the network as to whether DHS still deemed the nurse to be a “domestic terrorist.”

The Trump administration is being sued by the families of two people killed in U.S. military boat strikes.

Civil rights attorneys filed a lawsuit in Massachusetts federal court on behalf of the families of Chad Joseph, 26, and Rishi Samaroo, 41, both of Las Cuevas, Trinidad. Both were killed in a U.S. military strike on October 14. The lawsuit was filed under admiralty law by Lenore Burnley, Joseph’s mother, and Sallycar Korasingh, Samaroo’s sister, and alleges that the U.S. bombing campaign in the southern hemisphere is illegal.

“These premeditated and intentional killings lack any plausible legal justification,” the lawsuit states. “Thus, they were simply murder, ordered at the highest levels of government and obeyed by military officers in the chain of command.”

The families are represented by the ACLU, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and Seton Hall University in the first federal lawsuit filed over the strikes. Their lawyers echo concerns made by legal scholars and members of Congress that the bombings may constitute war crimes.

“This is uncharted water. Never before in the country’s history has the government asserted this type [of] power,” Seton Hall law school professor Jonathan Hafetz told The Guardian. “This is a clear example of unlawful killing by the United States. The U.S. is assuming the prerogative to kill victims in international waters.”

The October 14 bombing in the Caribbean was the fifth such strike by the U.S. Since then, the Trump administration has launched 31 more, including one on Friday in the eastern Pacific Ocean that killed two people. The government claims that they are targeting drug cartels and stopping drugs like fentanyl from making their way into the United States. The families of Joseph and Samaroo assert that the pair were fishermen who were arbitrarily targeted.

“This is killing for sport, it’s killing for theater and it’s utterly lawless,” said Baher Azmy, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights. “We need a court of law to rein in this administration and provide some accountability to the families.”

Melania Trump’s new documentary, Melania, is looking like an opening-week box office flop—after Amazon’s MGM studios paid tens of millions of dollars for the rights to it.

The documentary detailing the first lady’s return to the White House is projected to make just $1 million in its first week. While documentaries generally do worse at the box office, the sheer amount of money Amazon spent—$40 million for the rights, $35 million for an aggressive marketing blitz—and the constant stream of Truth Social posts from President Trump make this a particularly pitiful showing.

Melania’s early failure comes as a new report from Rolling Stone details serious labor issues behind the scenes and a whopping two-thirds of the film’s staff requesting not to be credited at the end of the film. Director Brett Ratner, who made headlines after six women accused him of sexual assault and harassment during the #MeToo movement in 2017, was perhaps the most loathed person on set. (Actress Natasha Henstridge alleged that Ratner forced her to perform oral sex on him when she was 19, Olivia Munn claimed that Ratner masturbated in front of her, and more recently, he was pictured shirtless in the Epstein files.)

“I feel a little bit uncomfortable with the propaganda element of this,” one crew member shared, “but Brett Ratner was the worst part of working on this project.”

“He did actually chew a piece of gum and throw it in a coffee cup on my cart,” a staff member told Rolling Stone, [but] “didn’t acknowledge my existence for even one nanosecond.”

Another member recalled a day when Ratner feasted on his own meal in a set space where food was not allowed, on a day when no one else on the crew got a break to eat.

“Brett, unknowingly or maliciously, got his own food, went up there, was just eating it and just licking his fingers in grubbiest way possible, either being a dick or [having] no awareness whatsoever to the fact that everybody else is working and no one’s eating,” a staffer said.

“Unfortunately, if [the film] does flop … I would really feel great about it,” said another.

Melania herself is pocketing $28 million from the licensing sale. She and President Trump plan to attend a premiere of the documentary at the Kennedy Center on Thursday.

The president’s favorite TV network still has some sway with the Oval Office.

On Monday morning, Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade floated a novel idea on air: Solve the collapsing environment in Minnesota by introducing border czar Tom Homan into the situation. Kilmeade mentioned the idea at 6:15 a.m., again an hour later, and then a third time at 8:10 a.m.

As CNN’s Brian Stelter put it, “Maybe Trump was watching, maybe he wasn’t,” but just 20 minutes after Kilmeade’s third suggestion, Donald Trump followed his advice and announced Homan’s imminent involvement in the North Star State. Shortly afterward, it appeared that Customs and Border Patrol boss Greg Bovino—who had until Monday overseen Immigration and Customs Enforcement and CBP activity in Minnesota—was getting the shove.

Homan’s inclusion appears to be a Hail Mary by the White House to salvage a highly advertised immigration crackdown that has turned sour for even the most conservative of Republicans.

The GOP has balked at the national backlash to ICE’s violence in Minnesota, which so far has involved the senseless killing of two U.S. citizens: Veterans Affairs ICU nurse Alex Pretti and award-winning poet Renee Nicole Good.

In the aftermath of their deaths, thousands of Americans have taken to the streets in protest. Trump’s job score has nosedived, hitting a net approval of -19 percent. In an attempt to pivot ahead of midterms, Trump is headed to Iowa Tuesday to reframe his administration’s priorities. Suddenly, the word of the day is affordability, with the president set to give a speech on energy and the economy while the White House decides what to do with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

The country, by all means, appears fed up with the reality of Trump’s immigration agenda, which has thus far deported people from the United States without due process, ripped children from their parents, and ushered thousands of untrained ICE agents into cities and neighborhoods where they are not wanted. A CBS News poll published days before agents killed Pretti found that 61 percent of surveyed Americans felt that ICE agents were “too tough” when stopping and detaining people.

On air, Kilmeade implored Trump to display calm leadership, reading aloud an editorial in the New York Post (another Rupert Murdoch–owned entity) positing that the American left will utilize the situation in Minneapolis to instigate a “civil war.”

“The bottom line is, these images are not the ones that are going to help you keep the majorities,” Kilmeade said Monday.

Following the killing of Alex Pretti by federal agents over the weekend, the cell phone Pretti was holding moments before his death has disappeared into federal custody.

The New York Times reports that the FBI initially collected evidence from the shooting, including Pretti’s handgun and phone, but has turned over that evidence to Homeland Security Investigations, a division of the Department of Homeland Security, which is now handling the investigation into Pretti’s death.

Pretti’s family told the Associated Press Monday that they have no idea where the phone is, and his father, Michael Pretti, said they have yet to be contacted by federal law enforcement. But perhaps most troubling, officials told CBS News that there was no documented chain of custody for Pretti’s gun, raising the question of whether evidence has been improperly handled (or footage erased). The Department of Homeland Security has refused to publicly confirm whether it has the video he was recording.

Minnesota state authorities were denied access to the crime scene, despite obtaining a judge’s warrant. The state even had to obtain a temporary restraining order to stop the federal government from altering or destroying evidence, which the Trump administration shockingly is trying to overturn.

“We’ve never had to do anything like this before,” said Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, adding that the situation was “uncharted territory.”

All of this raises the question as to whether the investigation into Pretti’s death will be anything close to fair and independent. Border Patrol is part of DHS, so essentially the department is investigating itself, and the Trump administration isn’t exactly known for accepting negative rulings or restrictions.

Customs and Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Greg Bovino may be on his way out after delivering a full-throated defense for killing a U.S. citizen in broad daylight.

Bovino has reportedly been removed from his position as commander-at-large. He will depart Minnesota for his previous post as a border official in El Centro, California, where he is expected to retire shortly afterward, The Atlantic reported Monday night.

The Department of Homeland Security reportedly suspended Bovino’s access to his social media accounts, after he spent most of Sunday responding to people calling out his outlandish claims about Alex Pretti.

DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin claimed Monday night that Bovino had “NOT been relieved of his duties,” in a post on X. But several people pointed out that she did not deny the bulk of the reporting regarding his departure from the organization.

Bovino thoroughly made a mess of the Trump administration’s P.R. response to the latest killing by a federal agent, baselessly claiming that Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, had intended to harm CBP officers. He also praised his agents, who shot Pretti at least 10 times as he was pinned to the ground, for killing him.

Speaking to CNN’s Dana Bash Sunday, Bovino backed up Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s outrageous claim that Pretti had “brandished” a weapon at a group of officers. Video of the incident showed that he had been filming officers with his cell phone and tried to help a fellow protester who had been pepper-sprayed.

Donald Trump reportedly complained that Bovino and Noem had appeared too “callous” in their television appearances Sunday, which motivated the president to send “border czar” Tom Homan to Minnesota to do damage control.

“[Bovino]’s a cowboy, and it was a mess. It was only escalation, and no one was going to back down,” a source familiar with the operations told Axios. “Homan going is a good thing. Someone needed to step in.”

A federal judge in Minnesota is ordering the head of ICE to appear in court Friday to defend why his agency is ignoring court orders and the due-process rights of countless detainees.

Bush-appointed Chief Judge Patrick Schiltz on Monday called on acting Director Todd Lyons to testify and threatened him with contempt, stating that “the Court’s patience is at an end.”

Schlitz’s order came in the case of a man challenging his detention in Minnesota earlier this month. He was supposed to either be released or get a bond hearing a week after his January 14 detainment. By January 23, he hadn’t received either.

“The Court acknowledges that ordering the head of a federal agency to personally appear is an extraordinary step, but the extent of ICE’s violation of court orders is likewise extraordinary, and lesser measures have been tried and failed,” Schiltz wrote, noting that ICE had already ignored “dozens” of court orders.

Lyons and ICE have yet to respond.

“The practical consequence of respondents’ failure to comply has almost always been significant hardship to aliens (many of whom have lawfully lived and worked in the United States for years and done absolutely nothing wrong),” Schlitz said of Lyons and ICE. “The detention of an alien is extended, or an alien who should remain in Minnesota is flown to Texas, or an alien who has been flown to Texas is released there and told to figure out a way to get home.”

This story has been updated.

Following backlash to the murder of nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, President Trump held a two-hour-long meeting in the White House Monday evening with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Noticeably absent was White House adviser Stephen Miller.

Noem reportedly requested the meeting, The New York Times reports, and it took place amid rumors that her job is in jeopardy, along with that of Corey Lewandowski, her top aide and rumored boyfriend. Also attending the meeting were White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, press secretary Karoline Leavitt, and communications director Stephen Cheung. Miller, who oversees the Trump administration’s immigration policies, did not take part.

The meeting is a sign that the criticism of the administration over its actions in Minneapolis is beginning to get to Trump. ICE is under the purview of Noem, as head of DHS, and she has been the face of mass deportations, as well as the violence committed by federal agents. Noem called Pretti a “domestic terrorist” over the weekend, although Leavitt tried to walk that statement back on Monday.

Miller called Pretti a “would-be assassin” following his killing, and Leavitt also refused to defend Miller’s comments. Meanwhile, Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino has been ordered to leave Minneapolis and return to his old job in California, and DHS has suspended his social media accounts. Is Miller also going to be sidelined, along with Noem?

The Trump administration is sending ICE agents to the Winter Olympics in Italy.

The Associated Press has reported that ICE will have a “security role” at the Milan games, and will apparently not conduct any immigration enforcement. This is a tall, high-profile task for an agency that shot and killed Renee Good in Minneapolis this month—and continues to wreak havoc in the city after federal agents killed Alex Pretti.

Giuseppe Sala, Milan’s mayor, offered a resounding rebuke of ICE’s upcoming presence in his city.

“This is a militia that kills, a militia that enters into the homes of people, signing their own permission slips,” Sala said on Italian radio, shortly before ICE’s role was confirmed. “It is clear they are not welcome in Milan, without a doubt.”

Vice President JD Vance, his wife Usha, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio will be present at the opening ceremony on February 6.

The Trump administration pledged to deport violent criminals—but instead, some of them have been on the payrolls of the federal government’s most aggressive agencies.

ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection employed at least 30 people with sexual and violent criminal histories in recent years, according to a report published Monday by the Ohio Immigrant Alliance with research from the Pacific Antifascist Collective.

At least 20 of those individuals committed offenses with underage victims, according to the report.

The 30 listed individuals have been charged with a wide litany of crimes, including gunpoint sexual assault, child sex trafficking, aggravated assault, robbery, rape, torture, kidnapping, sexual abuse of a minor, and possession and production of child sexual abuse materials.

Their transgressions occurred between 2015 and 2025, with the bulk of abuse happening within the last two years.

The delinquent officers include Minnesota-based ICE agent Alexander Steven Back, who was arrested in November for allegedly soliciting sex from a minor, in a multiagency sting referred to as “Operation Creep.”

“When he was arrested, he said, ‘I’m ICE, boys,’” Bloomington Police Chief Booker Hodges told reporters at the time of Back’s capture.

Elsewhere in the state, in June, Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Timothy Ryan Gregg “attempted, coerced, and enticed a minor victim” in order to make child pornography, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Minnesota.

The majority of the listed offenders were located in Arizona, where at least nine agents committed sex crimes. Several of the offenders were charged, caught, or sentenced within the last year.

The most recently convicted officer within the folds of the Grand Canyon State was 30-year-old Aaron Thomas Mitchell, who was sentenced in March to 27 years in prison for kidnapping and raping a teenage girl.

Months later, in May, Yuma-based CBP agent Ramon Marquez was arrested and charged on multiple counts for abusing a 16-year-old participant in the state’s Customs and Border Protection Explorer Program.

Later that summer, another Arizona-based border agent, Bart Conrad Yager, was slammed with 24 felony charges, which included one count of attempted child sex trafficking and six counts related to his attempts to solicit prostitutes.

“There is a dangerous culture within these agencies, and that is evidenced by this horrifying list,” said Ohio Immigrant Alliance executive director Lynn Tramonte in a statement. “Congress must stop giving ICE and the Border Patrol a blank check to commit crimes against the public. DHS must answer for its faulty hiring, vetting, and re-verification processes. The public cannot trust law enforcement agencies that employ so many dangerous criminals, and refuse to police their own ranks.”

But the agencies’ seemingly endemic violence will likely only be exacerbated by the Trump administration’s slapdash recruitment tactics, which involve a “wartime recruitment” hiring spree that aims to take on as many as 10,000 new officers in the coming year. Part of that strategy includes spending millions on social media advertisements targeted at gun rights advocates, UFC enthusiasts, and manosphere podcast audiences.

Meanwhile, AI-induced slip-ups have “sent many new recruits into field offices without proper training,” according to law enforcement officials who spoke with NBC News last week.