(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump announced Monday that he is dispatching his border czar, Tom Homan, to Minnesota amid outrage over the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by a federal agent.
“I am sending Tom Homan to Minnesota tonight. He has not been involved in that area, but knows and likes many of the people there. Tom is tough but fair, and will report directly to me,” Trump wrote in a social media post.
Trump, in another social media post, wrote Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, called him to “request to work together with respect to Minnesota. It was a very good call, and we, actually, seemed to be on a similar wavelength.”
Trump said that he would have Homan call Walz and that Walz was “happy” that Homan was going to Minnesota.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who will hold a press briefing on Monday afternoon, said Homan “will be managing ICE Operations on the ground in Minnesota to continue arresting the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens.”
The development comes after Trump, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal on Sunday, notably declined to say whether he thought the agent who killed Pretti acted appropriately.
“We’re looking, we’re reviewing everything and will come out with a determination,” Trump told the WSJ.
By putting Homan in charge of ICE operations in Minneapolis, Trump is bypassing the normal chain of command — where Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino have been overseeing ICE operations. Trump said Homan would be reporting directly to him.
Trump’s less definitive comments on the shooting were in sharp contrast with those of Noem, Bovino and FBI Director Kash Patel, who have defended the agents’ actions.
Trump administration officials said Pretti “brandished” a gun and multiple magazines with the intent to inflict harm on officers — a “massacre” Bovino claimed. Noem and others have labeled Pretti a “domestic terrorist” without citing any evidence.
State and local officials said Pretti was lawfully carrying a gun, with a concealed carry permit, and video reviewed and verified by ABC News does not appear to show that Pretti drew his gun on the agents and was holding up a cell phone — not a gun — to record agents during the incident.
Trump, like Noem, Bovino and Patel, criticized Pretti for carrying a weapon at a protest.
“I don’t like any shooting. I don’t like it,” Trump told the WSJ. “But I don’t like it when somebody goes into a protest and he’s got a very powerful, fully loaded gun with two magazines loaded up with bullets also. That doesn’t play good either.”
The administration is facing criticism from both Democrats and some Republicans for blaming the victim of the shooting, with some Republican lawmakers calling for an independent investigation into what happened. Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy said the credibility of ICE and DHS was “at stake” and there “must be a full joint federal and state investigation.” Moderate Democratic Sen. Jackie Rosen has called for Noem’s impeachment. ABC News has reached out to DHS and the White House for comment on impeachment calls against Noem.
The National Rifle Association issued a rare statement saying “responsible public voices should be awaiting a full investigation, not making generalizations and demonizing law-abiding citizens.”
Noem, responding to Trump’s announcement that Homan will soon be in Minnesota, said it was “good news for peace, safety, and accountability in Minneapolis.”
“I have worked closely with Tom over the last year and he has been a major asset to our team — his experience and insight will help us in our wide-scale fraud investigations, which have robbed Americans, and will help us to remove even more public safety threats and violent criminal illegal aliens off the of streets of Minneapolis. We continue to call on the leadership in Minnesota to allow for state and local partnership in our public safety mission,” Noem posted on X.
Noem will “continue to lead the Department of Homeland Security with the full trust and confidence of the President,” according to a White House official.
“Tom Homan is uniquely positioned to drop everything and focus solely on Minnesota to solve the problems that have been created by a lack of cooperation from state and local officials,” the White House official added.
Trump, in his interview with the WSJ, also notably suggested the possibility of pulling federal agents out of Minnesota.
“At some point we will leave,” Trump said, though he didn’t provide a specific timeline. “We’ve done, they’ve done a phenomenal job.”
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