Trump says ‘we’re reviewing everything’ in Minneapolis shooting, feds to pull back ‘at some point’

WASHINGTON, DC: The Trump administration is taking a fresh look at the fatal shooting of an armed ICU nurse who was protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Minneapolis, with President Donald Trump saying federal agents deployed to the city won’t stay forever.

Speaking to The Wall Street Journal in a five-minute phone call Sunday night, Trump said his team is still weighing what happened when Border Patrol agents shot and killed 37-year-old Alex Pretti during an anti-ICE protest on Saturday, January 24.

“We’re looking, we’re reviewing everything and will come out with a determination,” Trump said, stopping short of offering his own conclusion on whether the officer’s actions were justified.

“I don’t like any shooting. I don’t like it,” the commander-in-chief added. “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.”

Details surrounding Alex Pretti's shooting

Pretti was armed with a pistol during the confrontation with federal agents. Minnesota officials said he had a concealed carry permit.

Viral video from the scene appears to show an agent pulling the gun from Pretti’s waistband as others pin him to the ground. Seconds later, several shots can be heard. Pretti’s body went limp, and he was later pronounced dead.

The shooting marked the second killing of a US citizen in Minneapolis at the hands of immigration officers in recent weeks.

Members of Trump’s administration quickly framed the incident as a case of an armed man provoking violence. White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller wrote on social media that Pretti was “a would-be assassin” who “tried to murder federal law enforcement.”

Vice President JD Vance blamed local officials and called the unrest “engineered chaos” that was “the direct consequence of far left agitators, working with local authorities.”

Trump hints at federal pullback after Alex Pretti's death

Trump also said Sunday that the thousands of federal agents sent into the Twin Cities would not remain indefinitely.

“At some point, we will leave. We’ve done, they’ve done a phenomenal job,” he told the Journal, though he offered no timeline for when the drawdown would begin.

The White House declined to say whether Trump had watched the videos of the shooting (which appeared to contradict parts of his administration’s account) or whether he planned to speak with Minnesota Gov Tim Walz, a Democrat who has urged the president to help restore calm. 

Instead, Trump has said he would push Congress to pass legislation banning so-called sanctuary cities.

The president’s first public response came just hours after the shooting Saturday, when he posted on Truth Social questioning why Pretti was armed and accusing Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey of stoking unrest with “insurrection, with their pompous, dangerous, and arrogant rhetoric.”

He also urged Minnesota officials to cooperate with immigration authorities and “turn over” people who are in the country illegally.

“Tragically, two American Citizens have lost their lives as a result of this Democrat ensued chaos,” Trump posted on Truth Social.