President Donald Trump addressed the deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good — both of whom were shot by federal agents amid heightened ICE activity in Minneapolis in recent weeks.
During an appearance on The Will Cain Show on Fox News on Tuesday, Jan. 27, Trump, 79, called both shootings “terrible,” but said Good’s death felt “even worse” to him because her parents were “big Trump fans.”
“Bottom line, it was terrible. Both of them were terrible; the other was terrible too,” Trump said. “And I’m not sure about his parents, but I know her parents were big Trump fans, makes me feel bad anyway. But I guess you could say even worse, they were tremendous Trump people, Trump fans.”
Trump also speculated about Good, who was killed on Jan. 7.
“I don’t know that you could say radicalized, maybe radicalized, maybe not,” Trump said. “I don’t know, but I hate to see it.”
Trump learned that Good’s father, Timothy Ganger, was a “big supporter” of his during a Jan. 13 interview with CBS Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(665x0:667x2):format(webp)/Alex-Pretti-012526-1-1636fb7ddfd34dd8b0ce357a2d2ed8fe.jpg)
The president’s remarks came three days after the shooting of Pretti, who was killed by federal agents on Saturday, Jan. 24, while attending a protest against ICE enforcement actions in Minneapolis. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the killing occurred during what she described as a “targeted operation” involving an “illegal alien wanted for violent assault.”
In her statement, McLaughlin alleged that a man approached officers while armed with a handgun and “violently resisted” as they tried to disarm him. Authorities later identified the man as Pretti, a lawful gun owner with a permit, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said at a press conference.
Since then, multiple witnesses have shared videos that they say contradict DHS’s account. Some have claimed Pretti appeared to be unarmed at the time he was shot. After his death, Pretti’s family issued a statement condemning DHS’s description of the incident as “sickening lies.”
In DHS’s initial report to Congress, the agency stated that two federal agents fired their weapons, CNN reported Tuesday.
Also on Tuesday, Trump said he did not believe Pretti was “acting as an assassin,” pushing back on early DHS claims that Pretti attended the protest intending to “massacre” federal agents.
Good was shot by federal agents on Jan. 7 after a group of people allegedly gathered to block an immigration enforcement action. After her death, City Council member Jason Chavez described the 37-year-old mother as a U.S. citizen who was “an observer … watching out for our immigrant neighbors,” ABC News reported.
On Jan. 20, Trump addressed Good’s death during a White House press briefing alongside Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, saying ICE “gonna make mistakes sometimes.”
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(599x0:601x2):format(webp)/Renee-and-Becca-Good-120-011926-6c0ec325371b4de786c5691d821032d3.jpg)
“ICE is gonna be too rough with somebody or – you know, they’re dealing with rough people,” he said. “They’re gonna make a mistake sometimes. It can happen.”
Trump again noted that Good’s father was a “tremendous Trump fan.” “He was all for Trump,” Trump said. “Loved Trump. And, you know, it’s terrible. It’s so sad. It just happens,” he added.
Later in the Fox News interview on Tuesday, Trump said he would “de-escalate” immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis, while stressing that it was not a “pullback.”
“I don’t think it’s a pullback,” Trump said. “It’s a little bit of a change. We’re going to de-escalate a little bit.”
