Trump vows crackdown on funders bankrolling 'professional agitators' targeting ICE

WASHINGTON, DC: President Donald Trump said on Sunday, January 11, that federal authorities are looking into who’s bankrolling the organized protests aimed at US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

This comes after days of chaos and outrage in Minneapolis after a woman was fatally shot by an ICE agent last week.

Trump called the demonstrators “professional agitators” and said their slick signs and coordinated actions didn’t look even remotely spontaneous. The president said the federal government is now determined to follow the cash and expose who’s footing the bill.

Trump says law enforcement should not have to put up with 'professional agitators'

Trump spoke to reporters aboard Air Force One as he tied the probe directly to apparent harassment and intimidation of law enforcement officers.

“They're professional agitators. We are going to find out who's paying for it! With their brand new signs and all the different things,” he said.

On the Minneapolis shooting incident, Trump stated, “The woman and her friend were highly disrespectful of law enforcement. You saw that? They were harassing them, following them for days and for hours! But these are professional agitators. And law enforcement should not be in a position where they have to put up with this stuff."

"That woman and what her friend and what their other friends were doing to law enforcement, not just ICE, is outrageous," he added. 

This didn’t come out of nowhere. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had already said the administration was digging into who is paying for anti-ICE operations, suggesting the infrastructure behind the protests looks more like organized crime than grassroots activism.

“When you see these protesters, someone is financing them. There are safe houses! What we do is follow the money, just like we followed it with the Mafia, just like we follow it with the drug cartels — we will find out who's doing this,” Bessent said.

Border czar Tom Homan backed that up, saying the Department of Justice is already reviewing evidence that activists are being paid to interfere with ICE raids in major US cities.

Trump had notably called rioters “paid professionals” in June last year. “These are paid professionals. This is not people at random, and we will find out who they are," he said, pointing to things like bricks and hammers mysteriously showing up at protest sites as proof of coordinated planning.

Minneapolis incident becomes a flashpoint

The latest flashpoint came from a fatal incident in Minneapolis on January 7. ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good during an immigration enforcement operation. Federal officials say Good tried to ram officers with her vehicle, calling the act “domestic terrorism.”

The Trump administration has cast Good as part of a “broader left-wing network” that has been targeting and harassing ICE agents.

But state and city leaders aren’t buying that narrative. Minnesota Gov Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey have accused the administration of holding back evidence and spreading false claims about what happened.

Frey publicly challenged the White House. “If the Trump admin has nothing to hide from, then don’t hide from it,” he said, and demanded that Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension be included in the investigation.

A video from the ICE agent’s cell phone was published by conservative outlet Alpha News, showing Good disobeying orders and appearing to run over one officer before she was shot.

Vice President JD Vance shared the footage and blasted the media. “What the press has done in lying about this innocent law enforcement officer is disgusting. You should all be ashamed of yourselves," he wrote.

Protests exploded after the shooting, with federal authorities arresting several people described as “left-wing agitators.” The White House has tied those demonstrations to what it calls a broader campaign to disrupt ICE across the Twin Cities, where more than 2,000 agents have been deployed since immigration enforcement was ramped up.

The money behind the megaphones

Federal investigators are now looking at the groups they believe are paying for the protests. Reports say Indivisible Twin Cities, a local arm of the Washington-based Indivisible Project, is among the organizations under scrutiny.

The group reportedly received millions of dollars from George Soros’ Open Society Foundations between 2018 and 2023 and was involved in last year’s “No Kings” protests.

Other organizations, including CHIRLA and CARECEN, are accused of taking in federal grants totaling $34 million a year. The administration insists that money is being used to bankroll protest activity.

FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed the bureau is now involved. “The FBI is investigating paid protest campaigns throughout the country, including organizers, protesters, and funding sources that drive illicit activities,” Patel said.

Administration officials have also pointed fingers at high-profile donors. In November, Trump accused George Soros and Reid Hoffman of “pumping money into Antifa and the left-wing mobs attacking ICE and federal buildings.” Officials say they’re also concerned about NGOs and so-called dark-money networks helping stir up what they describe as “manufactured outrage.”

Those warnings didn’t just start this week. Back in October, federal officials said far-left extremists were embedding themselves in demonstrations, possibly with funding from left-wing donors or even foreign entities.

Similar probes have already targeted protest financing in places like Portland, where Trump ordered reviews of federal aid during earlier anti-ICE unrest.