President Donald Trump is headed to Iowa on Tuesday as part of the White House's midterm-year pivot toward affordability, even as his administration remains mired in fallout over a second fatal shooting by federal immigration officers in in Minneapolis.
In a display of reducing tensions, Trump said he had "great calls" with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Jacob Frey on Monday, after federal immigration officers killed a protester for the second time in two weeks. Trump's sudden shift toward a more conciliatory approach is just the latest in a string of moments where he's taken maximalist positions, only to appear to retreat.
The Trump White House has tried to blame Democratic leaders for the protests. But after videos suggest his administration wrongly labeled ICU nurse Alex Pretti an active threat to the ICE agents who shot him, the administration is trying to recalibrate its crackdown, putting White House border czar Tom Homan in charge of its Minnesota immigration operations among other moves and announcing that Greg Bovino was leaving the city.
The chief federal judge in Minnesota, meanwhile, ordered Todd Lyons, the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, to appear before him Friday to explain why he shouldn’t be held in contempt for Trump administration failures to hold hearings for detained immigrants.
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Walz has made his priorities clear to Homan, governor’s office says
“Governor Walz met with Tom Homan this morning and reiterated Minnesota’s priorities: impartial investigations into the Minneapolis shootings involving federal agents, a swift, significant reduction in the number of federal forces in Minnesota, and an end to the campaign of retribution against Minnesota,” the governor’s office announced.
“The Governor and Homan agreed on the need for an ongoing dialogue and will continue working toward those goals, which the President also agreed to yesterday. The Governor tasked the Minnesota Department of Public Safety as the primary liaison to Homan to ensure these goals are met,” the statement said.
Immigration agents still active across the Twin Cities
If they’ve changed tactics with the shift in tone from the White House, it wasn’t immediately clear in the Minneapolis and St. Paul area.
The streets appeared largely quiet Tuesday morning in South Minneapolis neighborhoods where unmarked convoys of immigration agents have been regular sights in recent weeks, including the neighborhoods where two people were killed by federal agents.
But Associated Press staff saw carloads of agents in northeast Minneapolis and in the suburb of Little Canada.
Every living former Democratic president has now addressed Pretti’s killing
Former President Joe Biden said on social media on Tuesday that the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis “betrays our most basic values as Americans.”
Former President Barack Obama said Sunday that the killing of Alex Jeffrey Pretti by a U.S. Border Patrol officer should be a "wake-up call to every American" and warned that "our core values as a nation are increasingly under assault."
Former President Bill Clinton’s statement Sunday said that “over the course of a lifetime, we face only a few moments where the decisions we make and the actions we take will shape our history for years to come.”
“This is one of them,” Clinton said. “If we give our freedoms away after 250 years, we might never get them back.”
Civil rights leaders to meet with Minnesota attorney general
NAACP president Derrick Johnson and League of United Latin American Citizens president Roman Palomares will hold community events in Minneapolis on Tuesday before meeting with Ellison.
The events include a visit to the site where Alex Pretti was shot and killed by federal immigration officers for a “moment of reflection,” according to a press release from LULAC, and a “Community Conversation” held at NAACP’s Minneapolis headquarters.
Trump immigration crackdown contributes to drop in US population growth rate
Trump's crackdown on immigration contributed to a year-to-year drop in the nation's growth rate as the U.S. population reached nearly 342 million people in 2025, according to population estimates released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau.
The 0.5% growth rate was a sharp drop from 2024’s immigration-fueled rate of almost 1%, which grew the population to an estimated 340 million.
Births outnumbered deaths last year by 519,000 people last year and 1.3 million people immigrated, compared with 2.8 million immigrants in 2024.
In the past 125 years, the lowest growth rate was during the coronavirus pandemic, when the population grew by just 0.16% in 2021. Before that, the lowest rate was just under 0.5% in 1919 during the Spanish flu.
▶ Read more about how Trump policies are affecting U.S. population numbers
Minnesota attorney general wants more than talk from Trump administration
Keith Ellison said he hopes Trump’s “Operation Metro Surge” will end immediately. Asked on MS NOW’s “Morning Joe” Tuesday if Trump’s newly conciliatory posture has led to more federal cooperation with state and local officials in Minneapolis, Ellison said “not that I’ve seen so far.”
“You should understand, Minnesota is abiding by the law as written. We, under the 10th Amendment, the federal government doesn’t have the authority to convert us into its deputies,” Ellison said. “And what the federal government has done is said, ‘well, if you don’t do it our way, we’re going to saturate your state with 4,000 ICE agents until you cry uncle and obey.’ And that’s unconstitutional and illegal.”
“It’s a good thing” Trump talked with Minnesota’s governor and Minneapolis’ mayor, Ellison said. “But we need to see some results ... they’ve got to show, not just say.”
Brandi Carlile donating to defense of Minnesota ICE detainees
Describing herself as "heartbroken and angry for Minnesota," the singer-songwriter says her foundation will grant $25,000 to a Minnesota organization that provides legal defense to people detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“Over the past month, the community there has continued to set an incredible example for the rest of us, demonstrating the power of uniting to protect our neighbors and defend what is right,” she posted on Instagram Monday. “Now, more than ever, it is vital that we continue to hold each other and take action to stop the hate that is spreading through our country.”
Carlile said the Looking Out Foundation is granting the money to help The Advocates for Human Rights provide free legal assistance to detainees.
Fetterman calls on Trump to fire Noem
Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman is calling on Trump to fire Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem after federal agents fatally shot two protesters in Minneapolis.
“Americans have died,” Fetterman said in a direct appeal to Trump. “She is betraying DHS’s core mission and trashing your border security legacy.”
Fetterman, a Democrat who has increasingly voted with Republicans, said Trump should “NOT make the mistake President Biden made for not firing a grossly incompetent DHS Secretary.”
Fetterman voted with Democrats in April 2024 to dismiss a trial against Biden’s Homeland Security Secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, after he was impeached by the Republican-led House.
What to know about Gregory Bovino
The field commander of Trump's immigration crackdown in Minneapolis is leaving the city after federal agents fatally shot two people.
Bovino had been the go-to architect for the large-scale immigration crackdowns ordered by Trump and the public face of his administration's city-by-city sweeps. The Border Patrol chief led agents in Los Angeles, Chicago and New Orleans before he headed to Minnesota in December for what the Department of Homeland Security called its largest-ever immigration enforcement operation.
“We’re going to turn and burn to that next target and the next and the next and the next, and we’re not going to stop,” Bovino said in an interview.
▶ Read more about Bovino's career, methods and approach
Melania Trump, on morning show, calls for unity
First lady Melania Trump said in a Fox News interview Tuesday that Americans needed to come together as protests continue in Minneapolis.
“I’m against the violence. So, if — please, if you protest, protest in peace. And we need to unify in these times,” she said.
Melania Trump’s comments went beyond her husband’s in calling for calm, though he has softened his rhetoric in recent days while continuing to blame Democrats for the violence.
She also echoed the president’s previous statements that he had a “great call” Monday with Walz and Frey, adding they were working together to ensure protests were “without riots.”
The interview with Ainsley Earnhardt on “Fox & Friends” was pegged to the upcoming release of a new documentary about the first lady.
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This item has been corrected. Melania Trump said “if you protest,” not “if we protest.”
Trump says his calls with Minnesota Democratic leaders were ‘great’
In a display of reducing tensions, Trump said in a radio interview broadcast Tuesday that he had “great calls” with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Jacob Frey on Monday, after federal immigration officers killed a protester for the second time in two weeks.
The Trump White House has tried to blame Democratic leaders for the protests. But after videos suggest his administration wrongly labeled Alex Pretti an active threat to ICE agents, the administration is trying to recalibrate its crackdown, putting White House border czar Tom Homan in charge of its Minnesota immigration operations among other moves.
“Actually, they were both great conversations,” the president said on the show “Sid & Friends In The Morning” on 77 WABC in New York City. “So let’s hope that turns out to be so.”
ICE chief must appear in court to explain why detainees have been denied due process
The chief federal judge in Minnesota says the Trump administration has failed to comply with orders to hold hearings for detained immigrants. He's ordered Todd Lyons, Trump's acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, to appear before him Friday to explain why he shouldn't be held in contempt.
“This Court has been extremely patient with respondents, even though respondents decided to send thousands of agents to Minnesota to detain aliens without making any provision for dealing with the hundreds of habeas petitions and other lawsuits that were sure to result,” Chief Judge Patrick J. Schiltz wrote in the order dated Monday.
Messages were sent Tuesday to ICE and a DHS spokesperson seeking a response.
ICE agents will have a security role at Milan Cortina Olympics
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will have a security role during the upcoming Milan Cortina Winter Games, according to information shared with local media by sources at the U.S. Embassy in Rome. The Associated Press independently confirmed the information with two sources at the embassy.
The sources who confirmed ICE participation on Tuesday said that federal ICE agents would support diplomatic security details and would not run any immigration enforcement operations.
During previous Olympics, several federal agencies have supported security for U.S. diplomats, including the investigative component of ICE called Homeland Security Investigations, the sources said. They could not be named because they are not authorized to speak publicly.
Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala said that ICE would not be welcome in his city, which is hosting most ice sports during the Feb. 6-22 Winter Games.
▶ Read more about the ICE agents' planned role in Milan
—- By Trisha Thomas and David Biller
Bovino is set to leave Minneapolis as Trump reshuffles the leadership of his immigration crackdown
Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino is expected to leave Minneapolis on Tuesday, according to a person familiar with the matter, as the Trump administration reshuffles leadership of its immigration enforcement operation and scales back the federal presence after a second fatal shooting by federal officers.
Trump said he was placing his border czar, Tom Homan, in charge of the mission, with Homan reporting directly to the White House, after Bovino drew condemnation for claiming the man who was killed, Alex Pretti, had been planning to "massacre" law enforcement officers, a characterization that authorities had not substantiated.
Bovino’s leadership of highly visible federal crackdowns, including operations that sparked mass demonstrations in Los Angeles, Chicago, Charlotte and Minneapolis, has drawn fierce criticism from local officials, civil rights advocates and congressional Democrats.
A person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press that Bovino is among the federal agents leaving Minneapolis. The person was not authorized to publicly discuss details of the operation and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.
▶ Read more about Trump's ICE enforcement leadership reshuffle
Trump administration’s trust and credibility tested in wake of Pretti’s death in Minneapolis
Trust is one of a president’s most valuable currencies, especially in a time of crisis. During his second term, Trump has persistently undermined the trust and credibility of major universities, national law firms and media and taken punitive actions against them. His supporters largely either endorsed those actions or stayed mum.
Now the credibility question is aimed at his administration. While the criticism is not directly aimed at the president by his supporters, it is a sign that trust is eroding over some of his most important policies.
The White House seemed to try to ease the conflict Monday. Trump and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz spoke and both suggested their conversation was productive. Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino, who has been at the center of the administration's aggressive immigration enforcement surge nationwide, is expected to soon leave Minneapolis.
Still, lawmakers from both parties — including many Republicans — called for independent investigations and, perhaps most importantly, trust after administration officials gave one account of the shooting in Minneapolis, while contemporaneous video provided a decidedly different one.
▶ Read more about how Trump's credibility is increasingly being questioned
Trump will visit Iowa in a bid to focus on affordability during fallout from Minneapolis shooting
Trump is headed to Iowa on Tuesday as part of the White House's midterm-year pivot toward affordability while his administration remains mired in the fallout in Minneapolis over a second fatal shooting by federal immigration officers this month. Even as some top administration officials moved quickly to malign Alex Pretti, the White House said Monday that Trump was waiting until an investigation into the shooting was complete.
While in Iowa, the Republican president will make a stop at a local business and then deliver a speech on affordability, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. The remarks will be at the Horizon Events Center in Clive, a suburb of Des Moines.
The trip will also highlight energy policy, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles said last week. It's part of the White House's strategy to have Trump travel out of Washington once a week ahead of the midterm elections to focus on affordability issues facing everyday Americans — an effort that keeps getting diverted by crisis.
Minnesota killing produces backlash against Trump administration from Second Amendment advocates
Prominent Republicans and gun rights advocates helped elicit a White House turnabout this week after bristling over the administration’s characterization of Alex Prettibas responsible for his own death because he lawfully possessed a weapon.
The death produced no clear shifts in U.S. gun politics or policies, even Trump shuffles the lieutenants in charge of his militarized immigration crackdown. But important voices in Trump's coalition have called for a thorough investigation of Pretti's death while also criticizing inconsistencies in some Republicans' Second Amendment stances.
If the dynamic persists, it could give Republicans problems as Trump heads into a midterm election year with voters already growing skeptical of his overall immigration approach. The concern is acute enough that Trump's top spokeswoman sought Monday to reassert his brand as a staunch gun rights supporter.
“The president supports the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding American citizens, absolutely,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.
Leavitt qualified that “when you are bearing arms and confronted by law enforcement, you are raising … the risk of force being used against you.”