Trump administration officials spent the weekend repeating a tightly controlled storyline after a Border Patrol agent fatally shot a Minneapolis man during a federal crackdown — until Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem hesitated on one key detail on live television.
That moment, paired with near-identical talking points delivered across cable news and social media, sharpened suspicions that the White House was scrambling to contain the political fallout rather than clarify what actually happened.
The controversy stems from the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Alex Pretti on Saturday during an immigration operation in south Minneapolis. Federal officials quickly described Pretti as violent and dangerous, but critics pointed to emerging video that contradicts the government narrative and raises new questions about whether deadly force was justified.
In sworn affidavits, two eyewitnesses said Pretti did not brandish a weapon when he was confronted by federal agents, contradicting the administration’s version of events.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican who has occasionally broken with President Donald Trump, publicly called for an investigation, breaking ranks with the administration’s early framing of the incident.
“The events in Minneapolis are incredibly disturbing,” Cassidy wrote in a post on X. “The credibility of ICE and DHS are at stake. There must be a full joint federal and state investigation.”
Trump offered a forceful defense of federal agents a day earlier while criticizing Minneapolis officials for not backing them up.
“This is the gunman’s gun, loaded (with two additional full magazines!), and ready to go—What is that all about? Where are the local Police? Why weren’t they allowed to protect ICE Officers?” Trump wrote.
As the political temperature rose, Noem stepped in as the administration’s lead messenger. At a Saturday news conference, she said DHS officers were carrying out “targeted operations” against an undocumented immigrant with a violent criminal history when Pretti approached them.
“An individual approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9-millimeter semi-automatic handgun,” Noem said.
“The officers attempted to disarm this individual, but the armed suspect reacted violently,” she continued. “Fearing for his life and for the lives of his fellow officers around him, an agent fired defensive shots.”
Viewers began to notice a pattern. One observer shared a split-screen video of Noem and Border Patrol Chief Greg Bovino delivering identical statements. One commenter asserted: “So…everything they say is scripted.”
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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent followed the next day with a similar version of events.
On Sunday, he clashed with ABC’s Jonathan Karl, repeatedly arguing that Pretti’s decision to carry a gun drove the outcome.
“I am sorry this gentleman is dead, but he did bring a 9 mm semi-automatic weapon with two cartridges to what was supposed to be a peaceful protest,” Bessent declared. “I think that there are a lot of paid agitators who are ginning things up …”
Karl interrupted that framing, saying: “…there’s no evidence that he brandished the gun whatsoever, in fact, it appears he was disarmed before he was ….”
Bessent cut off Karl before he could finish, arguing, “But he brought a gun, he brought a gun …”
Online reactions were openly hostile. One post read, “The fact that the COORDINATED messaging is saying that people shouldn’t be allowed to bring guns to protests illustrates how desperate and cooked they know they are.”
But when Noem appeared on Fox News’ The Sunday Briefing, she was more cautious. Journalist Peter Doocy pressed her about new footage that appeared to show an officer removing the weapon from Pretti before shots were fired.
“It appears that Alex Pretti was disarmed. If he was disarmed, is it the protocol to use deadly force?”
“That’s all part of this investigation,” Noem replied. “Every video will be analyzed, everything will be looked at… this happened in seconds. They clearly feared for their lives and took action to defend themselves and the people around them.”
The shift — from declaring Pretti an imminent threat to deferring to an investigation — did not go unnoticed.
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One Threads user who posted the clip wrote, “I’ll say this again — She can’t have it both ways. Yesterday she called Alex Pretti a ‘domestic terrorist.’ How can she determine that to be the case if there is an ongoing investigation?”
Another pushed back harder: “That’s all part of the investigation,” is their shorthand for, “we haven’t come up with an adequate lie for that yet.”
As one commenter put it, “Ooh boy. DHS, DOJ, and the White House are in spin mode today and it’s NOT working at all.”
Trump tried to cut through the debate with an all-caps Truth Social rant that framed gun possession as criminal: “HE HAD A GUN, ONLY CRIMINALS CARRY GUNS ON OUR STREETS, WE NEED LAW AND ORDER…”
But Trump’s post quickly backfired, drawing backlash from Second Amendment advocates.
“Trump doesn’t know how much the bargaining power here has shifted AWAY from him,” one critic observed.
By late Sunday evening, it appears even Trump got the memo. In a telephone interview with the Wall Street Journal, Trump was hesitant to put all the blame on Pretti.
“Trump didn’t directly answer when asked twice whether the officer who shot Alex Pretti had done the right thing,” the report read. “Pressed further, the president said, ‘We’re looking, we’re reviewing everything and will come out with a determination.’”
