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.
Is he, though?
For those who think "vote blue no matter who?"
Absolutely
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.
USA Today:
He gets funding through September for programs and authorities which actually help people, and if the other reconciliation bill passes the house then they get ICE Reforms but that's less likely now that Trump is rejecting any such reforms.
I assume the goal is to neuter ICE and maintain funding for things like FEMA and the TSA, right? What would shutting down DHS right now do that couldn't be accomplished over the next two weeks? If DHS shut down right now, ICE still operates, because they already have $72 billion allotted from the "BBB."
That Republicans agree to fully fund the government without fully funding DHS is a serious win for Democrats. Agreeing to this current deal is a no-brainer and is not "folding." I'll reserve my judgment for how things end up after the next two weeks
There is popular support to abolish ICE, but the democrats would never do it because most democrats actually support ICE.
We (leftists) have been telling you since forever, the democrats are 90% as bad as Republicans. We need to get rid of both parties, they are enemies of the people.
See, it's people like you with your purity tests that stopped 90% Hitler from winning! We'd only have 1.8 people publicly executed by ICE in the last week if it wasn't for you!
How exactly would the Democrats do that, having control of none of the branches of the federal government?
They wouldn't do it even if they controlled the entire planet with magic rainbow unicorn powers. They do not want to. They increased funding for ICE, they granted additional powers to ICE, they LOVE ICE. Democrats are fucking TRAITORS dude, you need to wake tf up.
2 people were (I believe intentionally) murdered in a little over 2 weeks this past month. DHS is currently holding Minnesota hostage to get them to agree to force their local police to turn people over for ICE, and seem to be escalating.
Now DHS has 2 more weeks to turn up the pressure on local officials by commiting more murders and causing more chaos.
They've also just started a warehouse buying spree so they can detain even more people.
Again, this might be a logical argument if we were talking about a normal Republican vs Democrat disagreement. We're not. A 2 week grace period for terrorists to keep terrorizing America makes no fucking sense. I'm not sure if there has ever been such an obvious justification for a shutdown.
The people supporting the terrorists would be blamed for that shutdown. The ball has truly never been more in Schumer's court. It was so obvious even Trump who is barely cognizant of reality anymore due to dementia, was aware of it and actually worried instead of doubling down for once.
You're asking what can the evil villain holding the entire world hostage do, when you let him off with a slap on the wrist, after he thought he might have actually gotten caught this time? Obviously he will do what he always does. Double down and escalate. Do whatever he has to do to get what he wants and take back the narrative; false flag attacks, distractions, literally nothing is off the table..This has to be obvious to people. These are not normal shitty politicians these are terrorists!
But the question still remains, what would be accomplished by shutting down DHS right now, given that ICE already has $72 billion appropriated to them and would continue to operate no matter what? If the goal is to rein in ICE or abolish ICE, how do you realistically get there this way?
Because Trump was actually scared that the government was going to shut down, and there would be no way for him to offset the blame. Schumer just took the burden off of his shoulders.
Let the government shutdown and refuse to compromise until there are actual consequences for what has happened.
This was their chance to make a list of demands, and instead of something bold but still very reasonable like:
•Make border patrol leave Minneapolis immediately
•Fire every ICE agent who was hired during the period when Miller demanded flooding the zone and bypassing background checks. If people want to reapply through the proper process and pass background checks they can. This is not only reasonable it should be fucking mandatory for liability reasons, it shows consequences, and at least slows the damage being inflicted.
•Last I checked, DHS was refusing to even identify who shot Pretti or release the body cam footage that allegedly exists. I know Schumer is asking ICE not be allowed to wear masks to prevent this in the future, but this information should be released immediately and there should be consequences for DHS ever refusing to comply with public accountability.
•Give local officials more power and autonomy when it comes to reigning DHS in, because they're definitely not stopping this shit anytime soon. If you want to prevent a civil war, something like this is not only very reasonable it's very necessary.
Instead the demands are things like "agree to no longer deport U.S. citizens." In other words "please start following the law." You don't have to sink to your enemy's low and refusal to compromise to play hardball, but even now when shit is this serious, Schumer and Jefferies seem to be incapable of doing anything other than placating the administration.
I'm not even in the "there's no difference between the Democrats and Republicans so why bother," propaganda camp, but I do know for a fact there often isn't a difference in who funds both sides. So either they're: A. Really bad at their jobs, B. More concerned about pleasing their donors than protecting America, or C. They have something like Stockholm or battered wives syndrome. Most likely it's D. Some combination of all of the above.
This is why we need to get dark money out of politics. Any politician who doesn't want the job without the extra kickbacks, and complains about the measley 6 figure tax funded salary they're expected to live on (and believe me this would be the majority of politicians on both sides) should have been forced out of the game a long time ago.
A small nitpick, the government shutdown hasn't been averted until the house votes on the bill which funds the government through September but only funds the DHS for two weeks. Funding officially ran out on the 30th of January. We might be in a shutdown and not even know it yet.
Also, if you care about campaign funding then the DNC are your dudes. The DNC platform includes reversing citizens united SCOTUS decision which requires a constitutional amendment meaning 60 votes. It would limit individual contributions and ban PAC money completely.
Because the threat of the shutdown was making Trump back down. As soon as he was no longer worried about that threat he was back to escalating.
The economy is about to fucking crash, or possibly has already crashed, and Trump is buying himself as much time as he can before he loses the last of his chances his supporters are still giving him for some reason.