Trump Thinks This Is the Main Issue With Alex Pretti’s Death

The president just can’t get behind the fact that slain Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti was licensed to carry a firearm.

Donald Trump—a born and bred New Yorker—mentioned Pretti’s gun permit status at least three times on Tuesday, apparently in disbelief that someone in the American Midwest could legally walk around with guns.

“You can’t have guns. You can’t walk in with guns, you just can’t,” Trump told reporters on the White House lawn Tuesday afternoon.

Later, at a restaurant in Iowa, the topic came up again.

“He certainly shouldn’t have been carrying a gun,” Trump said, noting that he viewed Pretti’s death as an “unfortunate situation.”

“I don’t like that he had a gun. I don’t like that he had two fully loaded magazines. That’s a lot of bad stuff,” Trump said.

Moments before ICE agents shot the 37-year-old dead in the street, videos taken from multiple angles depicted Pretti with no weapon in his hands. Instead, he was filming federal officers with a phone, while his other hand—which remained empty—was raised.

Pretti intervened when an agent shoved a woman, trying to help her back on her feet before he was slammed to the ground by seven ICE agents—one of which shot Pretti 10 times in a span of five seconds, ending Pretti’s life.

The widely documented reality of the situation has not prevented the Trump administration from attempting to twist the narrative into one that benefits its immigration aims, even if that means attacking Pretti’s Second Amendment rights, which were created to defend the American populace from exactly the kind of federal tyranny executed in Minneapolis.

Almost immediately after Pretti—a highly respected ICU nurse who worked in Veterans’ Affairs—was killed, Department of Homeland Security officials quickly branded him as a “domestic terrorist,” insisting that his death was justified on the basis that he had supposedly “approached officers with a 9mm semiautomatic handgun.”

But even as the White House has attempted to shift the optics on its operations in Minnesota, Trump has still continued to scold Pretti for daring to carry his gun on his person while he protested through the streets of Minneapolis.

“I don’t like the fact that he was carrying a gun that was fully loaded and he had two magazines with him, it’s pretty unusual,” Trump told Fox News Tuesday. “But nobody knows when they saw the gun or how they saw the gun.”

That has put the White House at odds with gun lobbyists, including the National Rifle Association, which was the single largest outside donor in Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. At the time, the organization donated $30 million to transplant him from the golden escalator into the Oval Office. In 2020, it donated another $16.6 million to Trump’s aims.

Responding to a post after Pretti’s death by U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, in which the Trump official claimed law enforcement are “legally justified” in shooting Americans in possession of firearms, the NRA posted: “This sentiment … is dangerous and wrong. Responsible public voices should be awaiting a full investigation, not making generalizations and demonizing law-abiding citizens.”

Gun Owners of America took on a more forceful tone, writing online that “the Second Amendment protects Americans’ right to bear arms while protesting—a right the federal government must not infringe upon.”

The Department of Homeland Security is collecting information on Minnesotans protesting ICE.

Federal agents from ICE and Homeland Security Investigations assigned to Minneapolis received a memo earlier this month asking them to collect identifying information on protesters and so-called agitators, CNN reported Tuesday.

Federal agents from the agencies were asked to fill out a form titled “intel collection non-arrests,” and “capture all images, license plates, identifications, and general information on hotels, agitators, protestors, etc., so we can capture it all in one consolidated form,” according to communications obtained by CNN.

Among the likely subjects of this massive surveillance scheme was Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old ICU nurse who was killed by Customs and Border Protection agents in broad daylight. A few days before he was killed, Pretti was beaten by a group of federal agents he was monitoring, and suffered a broken rib. A source told CNN that federal agents knew Pretti’s name, but did not clarify if he was in this database.

Last week, a masked ICE agent warned a woman filming their activities in Portland, Maine, that her information would be entered into a “nice little database” that would label her a domestic terrorist. This week, federal agents have reportedly started making house calls on volunteer ICE watchers they hope to intimidate.

DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin, a well-documented liar, claimed that her agency was not compiling a database of so-called “domestic terrorists,” but that it was “standard protocol” to collect information on law-breaking “violent agitators” in order to “advance prosecution.”

“We do of course monitor and investigate and refer all threats, assaults and obstruction of our officers to the appropriate law enforcement,” McLaughlin said. “Obstructing and assaulting law enforcement is a felony and a federal crime.”

It seems that federal agents have lost the plot on what obstruction actually entails. Federal agents have aggressively approached citizen ICE watchers simply monitoring their operations, threatening to arrest them—or worse. And DHS’s claims of assault against federal officers have continued to crumble under the slightest scrutiny.

Federal officers stationed in Minnesota don’t seem to be interested in lowering the temperature.

An ICE agent issued a chilling warning to a legal observer Tuesday, informing them that if “you raise your voice, I will erase your voice.”

“Are you serious? You said if I raise my voice, you will erase my voice?” the observer asked incredulously.

“Yes, exactly,” the agent responded.

Within the last three weeks, agents with ICE and Customs and Border Protection have shot and killed two U.S. citizens: Veterans Affairs ICU nurse Alex Pretti and award-winning poet Renee Nicole Good.

The agencies have also deported people from the U.S. without due process, ripped children from their parents, and ushered thousands of untrained agents into cities and neighborhoods where they are not wanted.

A CBS News poll published days before Pretti’s killing on Saturday in Minneapolis found that 61 percent of surveyed Americans felt that ICE agents were “too tough” when stopping and detaining people.

In the face of ICE’s seemingly endless violence, thousands of Minnesotans have risen up in protest, creating a call for change so loud that even Washington couldn’t ignore it.

By Monday, Donald Trump had unveiled a new plan for Minnesota in a flailing Hail Mary attempt to salvage his increasingly unpopular immigration agenda. In a post on Truth Social, Trump announced that border czar Tom Homan would be shipped to Minnesota to run ICE and CBP. Customs and Border Protection boss Greg Bovino, on the other hand, got the boot.

Meanwhile, the president almost immediately threw the de facto leaders of his deportation scheme—namely, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and Homeland Security adviser Stephen Miller—under the bus in order to save his own skin, attempting to frame himself in front of reporters as a level-headed witness to the ICE killings rather than the primary and active architect of the agency’s recent overreach.

Slain Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti had his rib broken by ICE agents just one week before he was shot to death. He was also potentially part of a massive surveillance database that agents are rumored to be collecting on protesters in Minneapolis.

An unnamed source told CNN that Pretti’s earlier altercation with federal agents occurred when he pulled over and got out of his car to observe ICE agents running after a family. He immediately began blowing his whistle and yelling. He was later taken down by five agents, with one leaning on his back and breaking his rib, before they released him back into the street.  

“That day, he thought he was going to die,” CNN’s source said. CNN reviewed Pretti’s medication records, which were consistent with the idea that he had broken his rib.

It’s not clear whether Border Patrol agents recognized Pretti before killing him this past weekend. But a DHS memo earlier this month told agents in Minneapolis to “capture all images, license plates, identifications, and general information on hotels, agitators, protestors, etc., so we can capture it all in one consolidated form.” A source also told CNN that federal agents knew Pretti’s name, without clarifying if he was in this database.

“One thing I’m pushing for right now … we’re going to create a database where those people that are arrested for interference, impeding and assault, we’re going to make them famous,” border czar Tom Homan said two weeks ago. “We’re going to put their face on TV. We’re going to let their employers, in their neighborhoods, in their schools, know who these people are.”

From the “fucking bitch” comment after Renee Good’s shooting to this news about Pretti, it seems clear that federal immigration agents aren’t simply good guys who are operating under duress of the mob—they’re vindictive, trigger-happy, and they’re remembering the faces of anyone who stands up to them. 

Federal officers in Minnesota are either completely ignorant of the severity of their violence, or they simply don’t care.

Agents staying at a Springhill Suites in Maple Grove—a suburban city about 20 minutes away from Minneapolis—were filmed by journalist Laura Jedeed laughing at protesters from a third-floor window Monday evening. Then, one of the agents pulled down his shorts and pressed his bare ass against the glass, mooning the distressed crowd protesting below.

Within the last three weeks, agents with ICE and Customs and Border Protection have shot and killed two U.S. citizens: Veterans Affairs ICU nurse Alex Pretti and award-winning poet Renée Nicole Good.

Immigration agents have resorted to arresting practically anybody—including U.S. citizens and children—in order to satisfy Homeland Security adviser Stephen Miller’s quota of 3,000 or more arrests per day.

In doing so, they’ve struck terror and fury into the souls of American communities, and the cold-blooded federal overreach has sparked nationwide protests and local economic blackouts.

Local politicians—including Minnesota Governor Tim Walz—have demanded that ICE and CBP exit their cities and states, arguing that the federal agents have done more harm than good. In 2025, before Good’s death, the agency killed 32 people—its deadliest year in more than two decades.

In an attempt to defend their own city from the state-sponsored violence, some Minneapolis residents have opted to openly carry their firearms, brandishing their Second Amendment right to bear arms. Locals have formed neighborhood watches to follow ICE vehicles, banging pots and pans and screaming to alert others when agents enter their residential neighborhoods.

The public backlash has rattled conservative lawmakers, donors, and even Donald Trump, who appears to be peeling away from Miller and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem in an attempt to salvage his immigration agenda.