Trump 'is not happy': Insiders say president fuming over DHS handling of MN shooting
According to multiple reports, Donald Trump appears to be putting distance between himself and the Department of Homeland Security, not only over the execution-style killing of 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti, but also over how officials have handled the fallout.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal’s Josh Dawsey late Sunday, the president broke with the official DHS narrative that Pretti was entirely at fault after he was swarmed by Border Patrol agents, held on the ground and then shot multiple times.
Dawsey wrote, “Trump didn’t directly answer when asked twice whether the officer who shot Alex Pretti had done the right thing. Pressed further, the president said, ‘We’re looking, we’re reviewing everything and will come out with a determination.’”
The president went on to say, “I don’t like any shooting. I don’t like it. 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.”
In a separate phone call, conservative pundit Erick Erickson reported on X, that a White House insider admitted the president has been expressing his displeasure with the post-shooting fallout as DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino and even Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent have stuck to a discredited version of the events that Pretti was the aggressor.
On X, Erickson wrote, “Late night phone call with a senior White House official who tells me the President is not happy with how the Department of Homeland Security has handled the response to this incident.”
Erickson also added that Noem has been deferring to the grandstanding Bovino and undercutting border czar Tom Homan.
“It’s border patrol and not ICE. ICE leadership objects to these stunts, which is why Kristi Noem has Greg Bovino of the border patrol in charge. Ironically, Bovino’s boss also objects, so he has been sidelined by Noem,” he accused.