So much for ‘Minnesota nice’, the phrase that Midwesterners like to use to describe their calm dispositions. Three gunshots – fired point-blank in the gelid snows of Minneapolis by a federal immigration officer at Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old white woman and American citizen – have plunged the North Star State into renewed political turmoil. The fatal shooting took place only a few blocks from where George Floyd was killed in May 2020.
In responding to the tragedy, President Trump proceeded on his favourite premise – the best defence is a good offence. On social media, he declared that the need for the imposition of law and order by immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) was paramount:
The woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self-defense.
The truth is that Trump is riding high
Homeland Defense Secretary Kristi Noem averred that the ICE agent had previously been the victim of an attempted car attack several months ago. The most subdued official was Trump’s border tsar, Tom Homan, who on CBS News called on lawmakers to ‘let the investigation play out’. As it happens, the official report on the US Customs and Border Patrol’s website indicates that ‘officers should be prohibited from shooting at vehicles unless vehicle occupants are attempting to use deadly force – other than the vehicle – against the agent.’
Trump’s chief antagonist is, of course, Minnesota governor Tim Walz, the former running mate of Kamala Harris, whom he regards with particular contempt. This past Sunday, for example, the president disseminated a conspiracy theory video that falsley claimed that Walz was the moving spirit behind the assassination of Minnesota lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband in June last year.
Walz, who recently announced that he would not seek a third term in the wake of allegations of widespread social service fraud in the state, has fired back with martial language. A day ago, he declared, ‘I don’t think any governor in history has had to fight a war against the federal government every single day.’ On Wednesday night, he asked Americans to ‘stand with us against this’, called ICE a ‘modern-day Gestapo’, and stated that he was prepared to call out the National Guard to quell any local protests that might turn violent.
Minnesota Democrats are calling upon Trump to withdraw the 2,000 ICE agents that he has sent swarming into the state. But Trump is unlikely to relent. The days of ‘Trump always chickens out’ appear to be over, at least until he experiences a real setback.
The truth is that Trump is riding high. He’s invaded Venezuela. He seized a Russian-flagged tanker. He’s openly musing about seizing Greenland. He’s vowing to raise the Pentagon’s budget to $1.5 trillion (£1.1 trillion) to create a ‘dream military’. He’s given the go-ahead for passage of a draconian Russia sanctions bill in the Senate, to the delight of Senator Lindsey Graham. And he’s just terminated all food assistance to the government of Somalia.
So why would the President back down in Minnesota or other blue states? Trump reckons that he can shore up the support of Maga-world by targeting the tens of thousands of immigrants from Somalia residing in Minnesota whom he has previously dismissed as ‘garbage’. Trump doesn’t do Minnesota nice.
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