(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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(NEW YORK) — Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro on Monday called for the Trump administration to terminate its immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis, following the killing of Alex Pretti by federal agents. 

“A fundamental responsibility for government is to keep people safe, and part of the way you keep people safe is by building trust between law enforcement and the community,” Shapiro said in an interview on “Good Morning America.”

“What Donald Trump and the federal government are doing is eroding that trust, is making people less safe, and it is time to terminate this mission,” he said. 

The Pennsylvania Democrat called for an independent investigation into the killings of Pretti and Rene Good to be led by the state of Minnesota. 

Some Republicans have called for a thorough investigation of Pretti’s killing, after videos of his killing raised questions about Trump administration officials’ initial characterizations of the incident. 

“This mission in Minnesota is compromised. It’s been directed by Donald Trump and [Vice President] JD Vance and [Homeland Security Secretary] Kristi Noem in a way to wreak havoc on a community, in a way that is very clearly violating people’s constitutional rights each and every day, and has led to two tragic killings in the streets of people who were not a threat, I believe, to law enforcement,” Shapiro said. 

Americans cannot bring a loaded firearm to protests, according to FBI Director Kash Patel.

“You cannot bring a firearm loaded with multiple magazines to any sort of protest that you want,” the FBI Director said after being asked by Fox host Maria Bartiromo about his message to those who are outraged about the shooting. “It’s that simple. You don’t have that right to break the law and incite violence.”

Asked if he endorses calls by a growing number of Democrats to refuse to fund the Department of Homeland Security this week — and risk a partial government shutdown — Shapiro endorsed the position of Nevada Democratic Sen. Katherine Cortez Masto, who called for the Senate to fund the rest of the government while pushing for changes to DHS in the wake of the shootings in Minneapolis. 

Noem has defended the agents’ actions in Minneapolis.

“This individual went and impeded their law enforcement operations, attacked those officers, had a weapon on him and multiple, dozens of rounds of ammunition, wishing to inflict harm on these officers, coming, brandishing like that, and impeding their work that they were doing,” Noem said this weekend.

Border Patrol Cmdr. Greg Bovino also defended the actions of agents amid the protests.

“I believe the fantastic training that our law enforcement partners have, the fact that they’re highly trained, prevented any specific shootings of law enforcement,” Bovino told CNN this weekend. “So good job for our law enforcement in taking him down before he was able to do that.”

“The challenge here … is the direction that these federal agents are receiving, the direction that’s coming all the way from the top, from Trump and Vance and Noem, that is compromised,” Shapiro said on Monday. “I would not continue funding this and giving the president a blank check to wreak havoc and undermine people’s constitutional rights.”

In his memoir out Tuesday, “Where We Keep the Light: Stories from a Life of Service,” Shapiro reflects on his life in public office and grapples with the 2025 arson attack on his home. 

“One of the core principles you enunciate in your book is that we have more that unites us than divides us. You see what’s happening in Minneapolis. You see what’s happening in the streets of our country. And does it challenge your thesis?” ABC’s George Stephanopoulos asked Shapiro on Monday. 

“I would hope that even in these serious moments, even in these moments where I know we are consumed by this darkness, particularly coming out of Minneapolis right now, let’s not forget that there are people in the world doing good, bringing light each day,” Shapiro said. 

Shapiro said politicians need to “speak and act with moral clarity.”

“Part of the point of my book is to encourage more politicians, particularly those who enable this president on a daily basis, to take their cues, not from the division that exists, you know, in our society, and sort of pushed even more so by social media, but instead, take their cues from good people who are doing good things in our communities each and every day, and that’s where I find the light,” he said. 

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