After killings in Minneapolis, Trump says will ‘de-escalate a little bit’
US ‘border tsar’ meets with Minnesota leaders after the fatal shooting of ICU nurse Alex Pretti sparks a full-blown crisis
US President Donald Trump’s border tsar, Tom Homan, met with the Minneapolis mayor and the Minnesota governor on Tuesday in a show of detente, as the White House sought to ease unrest gripping the city after two US citizens were shot dead by federal agents.
The move was part of a broader reset by the Republican president - who faces mounting political pressure - to soften his administration’s aggressive deportation tactics.
Some advisers have expressed concern that national outrage over Saturday’s killing of 37-year-old Alex Pretti, and the administration’s immediate defence of the agents who shot him, could derail Trump’s broader immigration agenda.
As they did after this month’s fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good, some administration officials initially responded to Pretti’s killing by accusing him of “domestic terrorism”, a claim belied by witness video verified by Reuters that showed he posed no threat.