Here’s all the unhinged moments from the last 24 hours in Trumpworld, as fury grows over ICE’s actions in Minnesota – as well as Trump’s murky bully tactics against Fed Chair Jerome Powell
When we look back on the second Trump administration, I’m willing to bet we’ll look at the Minnesota surge as a turning point. What we don’t know yet is which way it’s going to turn.
There have been revolts against ICE before – in Portland, Chicago and elsewhere. But people on the ground say the revulsion against the administration’s tactics, their targets and the trail of injury and tragedy they’re leaving in their wake is becoming too much even for conservatives. “This feels different,” is the refrain.
Equally, if the scale of revulsion and the administration’s willingness to bend to public opinion has been overestimated, this could the point we look back to as the moment the United States went fully authoritarian.
Meanwhile, in Trumpworld
- Border chief takes hat off to ICE killer
- Trump issues alarming warning
- Fed chair raises alarm over bully tactics
- ICE send like 20 guys to arrest man dressed as giraffe
Here’s what you need to know
1. Border chief says ‘hats off’ to ICE agent who shot Renee Good
During an interview with (who else?) Fox News, Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino defended the ICE agent who shot and killed Renee Good in Minnesota on Wednesday. He used the interview with host Sean Hannity to push increasingly fabulist argument that Ms Good intended to harm the ICE agents who surrounded her car.
“Sean, we call that a means, intent and opportunity,” Bovino said. “Did that individual [Good] have the intent? Look at those minutes leading up to the shooting and we will see what I would consider some pretty important intent.”
Moments before she was shot, Ms Good smiled at the officer who killed her and said “That’s fine Dude, I’m not mad at you.” Bovino went on: “Did that individual have the opportunity? Yes. Did that individual take that opportunity? Yes.”
This is untrue, analysis of the officer’s own video of the incident clearly show Ms Good steering away and around the agent who shot her. When she was shot, her car sped off to the right, away from him and into parked cars. Had her wheels been turned the other way, the officer would have been hit. In short, had she wanted to run him over, she would have run him over whether he shot her or not. She did not.
Bovino continued: “A 4,000 pound missile is not something anyone wants to face, especially in a split second decision making process in a very in already inhospitable environment. Hats off to that ice agent. I’m glad he made it out alive. I’m glad he is with his family.”
Again, there is nothing in the footage that has emerged since the shooting that has suggested the agent’s life was in any danger whatsoever. Ms Good and her wife were, according to the available evidence, peacefully protesting.
2. Prosecutors quit over push to investigate Renee Good’s widow
Six federal prosecutors in Minnesota walked out today, after the Justice Department ordered them to investigate the widow of Renee Good, the ICE shooting victim, according to the New York Times.
Senior DoJ officials reportedly pressed for a criminal probe into the actions of Ms Good’s widow, and alleged ties to activist groups – while refusing to investigate the actions of the shooter.
Those quitting in protest include Joseph H. Thompson, who was in charge of the huge probe into allegations of fraud in the state.
3. Trump issues alarming warning
Donald Trump issued an alarming warning to prepare for a “day of retribution” in Minnesota. Despite a wave of revulsion against the tactics and actions of ICE in Minnesota, the US President today doubled down on his surge of agents into the state, targeting Somali Americans, the vast majority of whom are US citizens. In a post on his own Truth Social platform, Trump wrote: “Do the people of Minnesota really want to live in a community in which there are thousands of already convicted murderers, drug dealers and addicts, rapists, violent released and escaped prisoners, dangerous people from foreign mental institutions and insane asylums, and other deadly criminals too dangerous to even mention.”
He went on: “FEAR NOT, GREAT PEOPLE OF MINNESOTA, THE DAY OF RECKONING & RETRIBUTION IS COMING!”
To which, yikes.
4. Fed chair – and Bank of England Governor – raise alarm about Trump probe
Trump has been trying to get rid of Jerome Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve (America’s central bank, the equivalent of the Bank of England) for months. He is very angry with him, because despite publicly berating Powell, accusing him of being incompetent and corrupt, and threatening to fire him – which he’s not really allowed to do – the Fed Chair has consistently refused to cut interest rates.
Doing so, the Fed argus, would do little but give the US economy a temporary juice, and would be bad in the long run. Trump, of course, wants the juice. But his public interference with what has traditionally been an independent, arm’s length body that doesn’t make monetary policy on the basis of political whims took another hit over the weekend. The Department of Justice very publicly threatened probes and criminal prosecutions over Powell’s role in the over-budget refurb of the Fed’s building in Washington DC – which Trump has previously suggested was corrupt.
But in a statement on Sunday, Powell, abandoning his previous attempt to ignore Trump’s relentless criticism, called the administration’s threat of criminal charges “pretexts’’ in the president’s campaign to seize control of US interest rate policy from the independent Fed.
Today, Central bankers from around the world said Tuesday they “stand in full solidarity” with Powell. He “has served with integrity, focused on his mandate and an unwavering commitment to the public interest,” according to a statement signed by nine national central bank heads including European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey.
5. US used plane that ‘looked civilian’ for first Venezuela boat strike
The US used a ‘secret aircraft’ painted to look like a civilian plane in its first strike on an alleged Venezuelan drug boat, the New York Times reports today.
The bombs dropped on the boat were reportedly stored within the main body of the jet, rather than beneath the wings. The Times feigning civilian status in armed conflict in order to trick the enemy into failing to take evasive action could constitute “perfidy”, a war crime.
6. Trump tells Iranian protesters: “HELP IS ON ITS WAY”
Trump canceled talks with Iranian officials amid their protest crackdown and promised help to protesters in the country after human rights monitors said Tuesday that the death toll spiked to 2,000.
Trump did not offer any details about what the help would entail, but it comes after Trump said Iran wants to negotiate with Washington after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic. Trump’s latest message on social media appeared to make an abrupt shift about his willingness to engage with the Iranian government.
“Iranian Patriots, KEEP PROTESTING – TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!!” Trump wrote in morning post on Truth Socia. “Save the names of the killers and abusers. They will pay a big price. I have cancelled all meetings with Iranian Officials until the senseless killing of protesters STOPS. HELP IS ON ITS WAY.”
7. Florida congressman pushes ‘Greenland Annexation bill’
We deeply hope the people of Orlando, Florida are proud of Randy Fine, who is not, as you might assume from his name, an adult film star, but a member of the US House of Representatives.
If his name sounds familiar, it may be due to his proposing changes to the 22nd Amendment back in October, to allow Trump to stand for a third term in office.
(Amusingly, the other House member to present similar proposals to congress is called Andy Ogles, who sounds like he could have been a co-star.)
His latest legislative stunt is a bill approving the annexation of Greenland, imaginatively titled the “Greenland Annexation bill”.
To cement his status as a tremendously unserious person, Mr Fine posted an image of what Greenland might look like under US rule, featuring a huge Trump branded skyscraper on the island of fewer than 60,000 people.
8. Meanwhile, ICE send like 20 guys to arrest a man dressed as a giraffe
Rob Potylo, also known as Robby Roadsteamer is a left leaning activist comedian. He’s a bit o a prankster, but is broadly harmless.
Of late, he’s been protesting outside the ICE HQ in Minnesota dressed as a giraffe.
Overnight, footage emerged of ICE sending a huge group of officers over to him – and apparently only him – manhandling him to the ground and arresting him. It’s unclear at this point what, if anything, he did to warrant being arrested.
