Minnesota has been like a war zone for the last few days. The middle-of-the-road heathen has come out, implementing Trump’s anti-illegal immigration rhetoric.
The day ahead in Minnesota depends on whether the president concludes that he simply has an image problem or is ready to change the unpopular deportation policies that are at the core of his political identity.
On Wednesday, he kept his word to a degree and de-escalated after the shooting of 37-year-old Alex Prairie by federal agents last weekend, which had brought him and the entire country to the brink of a dangerous crisis.
But it was only a small de-escalation. The rifts between the government’s aggressive deportation drive and a city that, under Democratic administration, fundamentally opposes the methods, have not narrowed. And Trump has returned to inflammatory rhetoric against local leaders who stand in the way of his plans.
Any de-escalation is likely to prove short-lived unless Trump is willing to absorb a serious political defeat or Democrats accept at least some of the federal deportation activity.
“I don’t want them to spend one second going after a father who just dropped his kids off at daycare, who goes to work a 12-hour shift, and who happens to be from Ecuador,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said Wednesday.
Fragile de-escalation efforts
had precarious conversations with local officials, while Trump himself returned to aggressive rhetoric, threatening the mayor of Minneapolis for not enforcing federal immigration laws.
At the same time, with limited confidence in the investigation of the Department of Homeland Security and new evidence to intensify the reactions.
Senate Democrats are calling for curbs on federal operations, threatening a partial government shutdown, while Republicans are also experiencing confusion and internal tension.
The polarized climate was further compounded by an attack on lawmaker Ilhan Omar and Trump’s chilly response, dampening hopes for meaningful de-escalation.
The unbridgeable immigration gap
National outrage over Pretty’s death prompted Trump to pull the hard-line Border Patrol chief, Greg Bovino, from the state and sideline Noem by sending Homan. Trump and other top officials have also tempered their rhetoric, if only temporarily.
However, behind the crisis in Minneapolis is a fundamental political divide. If the tactics used to achieve ambitious deportation goals appear sufficiently draconian, they may push other immigrants to self-deport or discourage them from attempting to enter the country.
The administration accuses Democratic jurisdictions, including Minnesota and Minneapolis, of refusing to cooperate with federal businesses and of actively obstructing them through political rhetoric that encourages protests.
That approach is a key pillar of Trump’s domestic political plan, even if it is unpopular with Americans outside his base. This is one reason why it will be so difficult for the White House to back down.
“Trump went into the election and won with that as the central issue. It was not a footnote in his program. It was one of the foundational, defining policies of his 2024 campaign,” Missouri Sen. Eric Schmidt said Wednesday. “That promise was one of the main reasons the American people sent him back to the White House.”
