Trump says he's going to de-escalate in Minnesota after shooting backlash

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said his administration would de-escalate a little bit amid rising tensions in Minnesota, where two US citizens have been killed this month in shootings involving federal immigration agents.

Speaking to Fox News’ The Will Cain Show, Trump said his administration was seeking to calm the situation following the deaths of Alex Pretti over the weekend and Renee Nicole Good earlier this month.

“We are going to de-escalate a little bit,” Trump said when asked about the situation in Minnesota.

Trump made the remarks after spending much of the day responding to questions about the two fatal shootings, which have triggered protests and heightened scrutiny of federal immigration operations in Minneapolis. Renee Good, 37, was shot by a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer on January 7. Alex Pretti, also 37, was killed on January 24.

He said he had earlier shaken up leadership of his immigration operation in Minnesota, but denied that the move amounted to a retreat. “This is not a pullback,” Trump said.

Trump said he had spoken with the governor of Minnesota and the mayor of Minneapolis, adding that there was a shared desire to bring tensions down.

Trump also suggested the protests were being used to divert attention from a broader federal investigation. “A lot of what is going on with respect to Minneapolis, what’s happening with all the hoopla, is so people don’t talk about the fraud,” he said, referring to a welfare fraud probe in the city. “I have said it from day one, it’s a distraction.”

Trump described both killings as terrible, referring to the deaths of Pretti and Good. “I’m not sure about his parents but I know her parents were big Trump fans. Makes me feel bad anyway. But I mean, I guess you could say even worse,” he said.

Trump also dismissed reports about the detention of five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, calling them “totally false.” The remarks came after Will Cain referred to what he described as hypothetical propaganda showing a child being separated from a parent and said a similar situation had been attributed to Trump’s administration.

“By the way, that was a totally false story,” Trump said. Asked about defending his immigration enforcement policies, the president said such cases were difficult, but argued that isolated mistakes were exaggerated. “If we get one person a little bit wrong — headlines,” he said, while pointing to broader enforcement actions targeting drug dealers and criminal networks.

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