President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance are projecting noticeably different messages in the aftermath of the Minneapolis operation that left two U.S. citizens dead.
After the January shooting deaths of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti by federal immigration agents, Trump acknowledged on Wednesday, Feb. 4, that officers operating under the Department of Homeland Security might need to dial down their approach when sent into protests or other volatile situations.
“I learned that maybe we could use a little bit of a softer touch,” Trump told NBC News’ Tom Llamas when asked what he took away from the backlash surrounding Minneapolis. “But you still have to be tough. These are crim– We’re dealing with really hard criminals.”
Trump also suggested frustration with local leaders, saying he had reached out directly.
“But look, I’ve called the people. I’ve called the governor. I’ve called the mayor. Spoke to ‘em. Had great conversations with them. And then I see them ranting and raving out there. Literally as though a call wasn’t made,” he added.
Trump’s comments came two weeks after he expressed sympathy for Good while also describing the shooting as an understandable error made under pressure.
“They’re gonna make mistakes sometimes,” he said. “ICE is gonna be too rough with somebody or- you know, they’re dealing with rough people. They’re gonna make a mistake sometimes. It can happen.”
“And, you know, it’s terrible. It’s so sad. It just happens,” he added.
Pressed again on Wednesday to clarify what he meant by “mistakes,” Trump said he was unhappy with both fatal incidents, while also appearing to cast doubt on the victims’ reputations.
“Well, look — I’m not happy with the two incidents.”
“He [Pretti] was not an angel and she [Good] was not an angel. You know, you look at some tapes from back– but still, I’m not happy with what happened there,” he continued. “Nobody can be happy and ICE wasn’t happy either. But I’m gonna always be with our great people of law enforcement.”
Vance takes a harder line
While Trump leaned into a mix of regret and defense, Vance’s public posture has been more rigid—especially regarding Pretti.
In an interview with Daily Mail one day before Trump’s NBC sit-down, Vance was asked about his repost of an X statement from White House homeland security adviser Stephen Miller, which described the 37-year-old ICU nurse as “an assassin” who “tried to murder federal agents.”
When asked whether he would apologize for that characterization—after widely circulated video of the shooting appeared to undermine that framing—Vance replied, “For what?”
“For labeling him an assassin with ill intent,” the interviewer said.
“I just described to you what I said about Alex Pretti, which is that he was a guy who showed up with ill intent to an ICE protest,” Vance responded.
The interviewer then asked whether Vance would apologize if investigators later determined Pretti’s civil rights were violated.
Vance sighed, answering, “So, if this hypothetical leads to that hypothetical leads to another hypothetical, will I do a thing?”
He added that if wrongdoing is confirmed, consequences should follow—while arguing it would be premature to reach conclusions before the investigation ends.
“If something is determined that the guy who shot Alex Pretti did something bad, then a lot of consequences are going to flow from that. We’ll let that happen. I don’t think it’s smart to prejudge the investigation.”
A pattern during the Minneapolis crackdown
Vance’s remarks to Daily Mail fit a broader pattern from January, when he repeatedly defended federal agents amid outrage over immigration arrests in Minneapolis—including the detainment of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias.
“So the story is that ICE detained a 5-year-old. Well, what are they supposed to do?” Vance told reporters during a Minneapolis press conference on Jan. 22, standing alongside ICE and Border Patrol officers. “Are they supposed to let a 5-year-old child freeze to death? Are they not supposed to arrest an illegal alien in the United States of America?”
Vance later acknowledged the emotional toll on children caught up in arrests while maintaining that parenthood should not shield someone from enforcement actions.
“It’s traumatic for the kids. I can recognize that, and I can recognize that we’ve got to support these kids while, on the other hand, saying that just because you’re a parent doesn’t mean that you get complete immunity from law enforcement.”
The family’s lawyer, Marc Prokosch, later told The Guardian that Liam and his father had been seeking asylum in the U.S. and had an active case, adding that they entered the country through an official point of entry.
On Jan. 31, a judge ordered both to be released from an ICE detention facility in Texas, writing that ICE’s case against them “has its genesis in the ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children.”
