Hours after an immigration agent shot and killed an intensive care nurse in Minneapolis, the Trump administration shared its version of events: An armed man confronted officers bent on violence, and the agent fired in self-defense.
Officials took a similar approach two weeks earlier, when an immigration officer shot and killed Renee Good. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem quickly defended the officer’s response and said Good had tried to ram the officer in an act of domestic terrorism.
Both responses followed what political communications researchers say is a signature Trump approach to crisis management: First go on the attack. The administration stuck by these narratives even as videos in both cases contradicted their accounts and depicted far more complicated encounters.
The ICU nurse, Alex Pretti, apparently wasn’t holding a gun when he was shot and may have been coming to the aid of a demonstrator, videos show. Moments before Good was killed, the officer ordered her out of the car, but she didn’t get out. Video shows the car wheels pointing away from the officer as she moves forward.
President Donald Trump is deeply attuned to public perception and highly skilled at managing the political narrative. His administration’s approach on immigration leaves little room for nuance by design, according to former DHS officials. It’s an effort to sway the public on aggressive enforcement tactics that have resulted in at least a dozen shootings since September. It also sends a supportive message to the officers involved.
Trump and his allies want to be the first out with a narrative and to contextualize events in a way that helps their goals and perspectives, said Samuel Woolley, a University of Pittsburgh associate professor of communications who studies disinformation.
That’s not uncommon in politics, he said.
“But what is uncommon is to make claims about a given event, including this current tragedy, that do not line up with the evidence and rather than waiting and gathering all of the evidence, to speak right away,” Woolley said.
Administration officials say Democratic lawmakers are to blame for the immigration-related violence, because they criticize and in some cases resist federal immigration enforcement operations that seek to arrest dangerous criminals in the U.S. illegally at great potential harm.
Trump’s immigration policy architect, Stephen Miller, described Pretti on Sunday as a would-be assassin on X as he responded to a post by Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., calling for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to leave the state.
Marcos Charles, acting executive associate director of ICE enforcement removal operations, said at a news conference Sunday that the chaos came from politicians.
“When sanctuary politicians, activists and the media work hard to create chaos and fear instead of using their platforms to reassure their communities, this is the result,” he said.
Deborah Fleischaker, a longtime Homeland Security official who was executive secretary in charge of written communication for the department leaders, said the department’s public statements seemed defensive.
“I think what you’re seeing today is a reflexive defensiveness, a reflexive protection, as though agents can’t make mistakes, and they absolutely always can make mistakes,” she said.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and other state leaders are all under federal investigation for their criticism of the immigration raids that have led to violence in Minneapolis; NBC News reported that Good’s partner, Becca Good, is also under investigation of whether she impeded federal law enforcement in the moments before Renee Good was killed.
Good’s attorney said there had been no contact indicating she was the subject of an investigation and has challenged the DHS account of the shooting. Walz and the other state officials have said the investigation is purely political.
The officers who shot and killed two Americans seem to be facing far less investigative scrutiny; Homeland Security is leading the probes into both cases, raising questions about whether there will be a criminal civil rights investigation by the Justice Department.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said he saw no reason for a criminal civil rights investigation into Good’s death. He said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" that DHS was handling the investigation into Pretti’s shooting.
The FBI is investigating, but federal officials are not cooperating with local law enforcement, a departure that has prompted local officials to launch their own investigations.
The shooting happened in the bitter cold Saturday morning. Pretti was legally allowed to carry the weapon, and he appeared to come to the aid of a woman who had been pepper-sprayed by DHS officials. Homeland Security said in a statement that Pretti tried to disrupt an immigration operation, officers tried to disarm him, and he resisted.
But at least four different videos of the encounter — recorded by eyewitnesses and verified and analyzed by NBC News — run counter to some of the administration’s statements.
Brendan Nyhan, a Dartmouth College professor who focuses on misperceptions, conspiracy theories and political communication, said that the Trump administration’s strategy can work to a point but that it brings risks: The images of Pretti killed by a federal agent could fuel a national backlash.
“It’s possible that’s what this will prove to be,” he said.
In a New York Times/Siena poll conducted after Good’s shooting but before Pretti’s, 61% of respondents said ICE’s tactics had gone too far.
Some Republicans are already speaking out. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., called for an investigation and said in a statement that the “credibility of ICE and DHS are at stake.”
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican, said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that Pretti’s death was causing “deep concerns over federal tactics and accountability.”
“Americans don’t like what they’re seeing right now,” he said.
Trump and his allies have seemed to change their stance however slightly; after Good’s death, both Trump and Vice President JD Vance suggested ICE had made mistakes.
“ICE is going to be too rough with somebody or — you know, they’re dealing with rough people — or they’re going to make a mistake sometimes,” Trump said. “It can happen. We feel terribly.”
The administration’s narrative of Pretti’s shooting appeared to soften following outrage that it didn’t line up with what videos showed.
U.S. Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino initially said Pretti confronted agents and violently resisted.
But a day later, Bovino said he had not drawn any conclusions and insisted that the investigation would uncover all the details.
“What I do know is this individual was on that scene several minutes before that shooting interfering with a lawful, legal, ethical law enforcement operation,” he said at a news conference Sunday.
Trump's views seemed to be evolving. A senior White House official told NBC News on Sunday that Trump still intends to push forward with his immigration enforcement and has not ruled out invoking the Insurrection Act in Minneapolis, which would allow him to deploy the U.S. military. But in an interview with The Wall Street Journal later in the day, he did not answer directly when he was asked whether the officers had done the right thing.
“We’re looking, we’re reviewing everything, and will come out with a determination,” Trump said.
