Minnesota National Guard hands out coffee, donuts and hot chocolate to anti-ICE demonstrators

ST PAUL, MINNESOTA: The Minnesota National Guard was spotted handing out coffee, donuts, and hot chocolate to anti-ICE protesters in St Paul on Sunday, January 25, as tensions remained high following a fatal shooting involving federal agents.

Videos circulating online showed guardsmen in yellow reflective vests offering donuts and coffee from the back of a vehicle. One National Guard member told WCCO-TV the gesture was meant as a “demonstration of safety and security.”

Earlier this month, the Minnesota National Guard posted on X that if troops were deployed to the Twin Cities, they would wear reflective vests “to help distinguish them from other agencies in similar uniforms.”

The outreach came amid heightened scrutiny of federal immigration operations in the area and a growing backlash from local officials and protesters.

Multiple shootings in Minneapolis fuel pushback

The guardsmen were filmed just one day after a Border Patrol agent shot and killed 37-year-old Minneapolis resident Alex J Pretti during a Department of Homeland Security operation in south Minneapolis.

Federal officials initially said Pretti approached agents with a handgun and resisted attempts to disarm him. However, bystander video and eyewitness accounts have raised questions about that version of events, including whether Pretti was threatening officers when he was shot.

Pretti’s death occurred only weeks after another fatal encounter involving immigration enforcement. An ICE officer fatally shot 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good after she allegedly blocked an operation in Minneapolis and drove toward the officer.

Following Good’s death, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey publicly encouraged anti-ICE protesters to assemble. That response later triggered a probe by federal prosecutors over the alleged impeding of law enforcement operations.

Trump, Tim Walz spar over federal agents in Minnesota

After Pretti’s killing, Tim Walz slammed the federal deployment and called on President Donald Trump to withdraw agents from the state. “Minnesota believes in law and order. We believe in peace. And we believe that Trump needs to pull his 3,000 untrained agents out of Minnesota before they kill another American in the street,” Walz wrote on X.

Trump, speaking to The Wall Street Journal on January 25, said his administration was reassessing the situation. “We’re looking, we’re reviewing everything, and will come out with a determination,” he said.

Addressing Pretti’s death directly, the president added, “I don’t like any shooting. I don’t like it,” while noting that Pretti carried “a very powerful, fully loaded gun with two magazines. That doesn’t play good either.”

Trump also tied the federal presence in Minnesota to what he described as widespread welfare fraud in the state, arguing that immigration enforcement was part of addressing broader abuses.

“It’s the biggest fraud anyone has seen,” Trump said. He added that while agents would eventually depart, no timeline had been set. “At some point, we will leave. We’ve done, they’ve done a phenomenal job,” Trump said. “We’ll leave a different group of people there for the financial fraud.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stressed the need for coordination among agencies. “Nobody, including President Trump, wants to see people get shot or hurt,” Leavitt said, urging officials to work more closely with the administration on addressing undocumented immigrants living in the country illegally.