In a rare and telling public rebuke, top right-wing news outlets — long part of Donald Trump’s personal media ecosystem — are openly ripping Donald Trump’s immigration crusade after the deadly Minneapolis ICE operation that left 37‑year‑old ICU nurse Alex Pretti shot and killed by federal agents. Now, even conservative dailies that usually do TV‑ready cheerleading are now calling for Trump to pull the plug on the entire Minnesota crackdown.
The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, both owned by Rupert Murdoch and reliably sympathetic to MAGA policy, blasted Homeland Security’s approach in Minneapolis as a “moral and political debacle.” They’re urging Trump to rethink the surge of federal immigration agents in the city, especially after Pretti’s killing sparked outrage far beyond the usual protest circles.
The Post editorial board flatly called the deployment of federal immigration agents a “moral and political debacle” because the administration’s narrative on the killing — pushed hard by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and Trump advisers — hasn’t held up under scrutiny.
Officials loudly branded Pretti a “domestic terrorist” and said he charged agents with a weapon. Video evidence and witness accounts, the very thing Americans trust more than government spin, tell a very different story: Pretti was filming agents with his phone, helping a pepper‑sprayed protester, and didn’t brandish a gun before he was tackled and shot.
They blasted the administration’s reflex to label a U.S. citizen a would‑be assassin while calling out Republican aides for treating social media posturing as a strategy rather than real leadership. In their words, Trump’s messaging team is treating terrorism branding like a meme campaign, and it’s backfiring.
The press’s pushback comes amid mounting questions about the official version of Pretti’s death and the broader logic of the federal enforcement campaign. DHS initially claimed Pretti approached Border Patrol with a 9mm handgun and intent to “massacre law enforcement.” Video reviewed by multiple outlets — including frame‑by‑frame analysis — undercuts that narrative, showing Pretti holding a phone before he was tackled and shot, not brandishing a weapon in any way.
In its editorial posture, the Post didn’t just lament the optics — it explicitly called on Trump to dial back federal action and reassess the strategy that’s now making the administration look reckless and out of touch with reality. That’s a remarkable turn for a paper that almost never bites the hand that feeds it.
The WSJ’s coverage, meanwhile, reported Trump told the paper his administration is “reviewing everything” about the Pretti shooting, but stopped short of condemning the agents or giving a timeline for pulling federal forces out of Minnesota. In the same interview, Trump — echoing DHS talking points — criticized Pretti for having a gun and blamed chaos on local officials.
This internal media blowback is part of a broader reckoning. Governors from both parties, local officials, and even some Republican lawmakers are publicly questioning the federal narrative and demanding transparency. Minnesota’s Democratic governor has called the situation an “inflection point” and urged Trump to withdraw ICE agents, warning that continued deployment fuels violence and mistrust.
Legal pressure is now mounting too: a Trump‑appointed federal judge has ordered DHS to preserve evidence connected to the Pretti shooting after the state sued, and Minnesota’s attorney general has labeled the administration’s version of events “flat‑out insane,” especially given evidence that contradicts claims of violent resistance.
