When a reporter asked Trump on Thursday evening whether or not he would be drawing back in Minneapolis, he responded: “Well, we want to keep our country safe. We’ll do whatever we can to keep our country safe.”
“So, not pulling back?” the reporter asked.
“No, no, not at all,” the president said.
This stands in stark contrast to what his administration has said this week.
After federal agents killed ICU nurse Alex Pretti on Saturday, Senate Democrats had threatened a government shutdown over the inclusion of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding and, within it, a historic increase to Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) budget.
Seemingly in response, the Trump administration scrambled to claw back some of its messaging.
The White House reneged on top officials’ comments calling Pretti an “assassin” and “terrorist,” and the administration booted Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino from his position overseeing the raid in Minneapolis. The new chief of Operation Metro Surge, “border czar” Tom Homan, assured the media that the operation was going to “draw down.” Trump himself said on Tuesday that “we’re going to deescalate a little bit” in Minneapolis.
And, for good measure, Trump administration insiders leaked some stories to the media about turmoil within Trump’s cabinet about immigration policy.
Just hours after Trump and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) announced that they had reached a deal to avert a shutdown, however, Trump changed his tune. That deal, which would give DHS two weeks of funding to operate while negotiations are ongoing, was announced Thursday afternoon.
Trump’s comments lend credence to critics who said that the administration was only posturing about deescalating while never planning to do so.
The Senate still hasn’t passed the funding package due to some Republican holdouts. However, other Republicans have framed the negotiations as a win — and critics have slammed the deal as one that disproportionately benefits Trump.
The threat of a government shutdown was a major leverage point for Democrats. It would begin this weekend, just a week after federal agents’ killing of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, giving Democrats power over Republicans to extract concessions on the Trump administration’s ICE operation.
Trump was desperate to avoid it — especially after his party shouldered much of the blame for the historically long shutdown last year. In a post on Truth Social on Thursday evening, he lauded the package.
Meanwhile, critics have slammed Schumer for the deal, which only buys Republicans time to distance themselves from the Pretti killing and continue the administration’s raids in Minneapolis and other cities unhindered.
“Leader Schumer should ask the Minnesotans who are watching their neighbors get killed in cold blood if a deal with no plan to stop ICE is enough right now,” said MoveOn Civic Action.
Chuck Schumer, somehow the only man worse at making business deals than Donald Trump.
What. The. Fuck. Is wrong with this stupid fucking coward? You essentially had your enemy by the testicles. You finally had the upper hand, and you give him a two weeks grace period?
And to the surprise of nobody, he immediately does what he obviously was going to do the entire time.
I get you don’t want to sink to the Republican level of refusing to ever compromise, but this wasn’t about taxes. It wasn’t even about healthcare. It was about funding the fucking gestapo, and rather than refusing you willingly compromised?
Did you at least negotiate for that seriously ill 5 year old kid to get some healthcare? Or maybe demand clean food and water for the people being held in these fucking sardine cans making evil rich fuckers trillions of dollars? Did you get DHS immigration oversight reestablished? Please tell me you got some kind of guarantee that things would improve on literally any level for any of the people currently being forced to suffer for no reason other than so selfish assholes can continue to profit. Because if not,
WHAT THE FUCK, DID YOU GET OUT OF THIS DEAL YOU FUCKING COWARD?
You’re still assuming Chuck Schumer is against Trump. He’s not. They’re on the same side. This isn’t a battle between political parties. It’s a battle against the rich and everyone else. Schumer isn’t bad at making deals. He’s excellent at making people think he’s trying.
In “conspiracy land” nobody is stupid, bad at their job, incompetent, or makes mistakes. There are no coincidences. Everything is done on purpose and it’s successful.
You then just warp everybody’s motives to fit your new conclusions.