The Trump administration has been on defense over its immigration enforcement operations since the shooting of 37-year-old Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse who was killed during an altercation with Border Patrol agents.
But, after a second video was released showing Pretti in an earlier incident with immigration enforcement officials, Republicans are divided over whether to follow the president’s lead and relitigate the incident politically.
The second video of Pretti, recorded by media company The News Movement on Jan. 13, shows the ICU nurse calling agents “f***ing trash” and kicking out the taillight of a vehicle used by the agents. After Pretti kicked out the taillight, the vehicle stopped, and a federal officer exited before grabbing Pretti and tackling him to the ground.
After a skirmish, Pretti escaped from the officer and went toward the crowd. The officer did not pursue him. The video also shows what appears to be a gun tucked into Pretti’s waistband.
PRETTI SPAT AT FEDERAL AGENTS IN CONFRONTATION DAYS BEFORE KILLING: VIDEO
Trump, who has previously said he wants to “de-escalate” the situation and called Pretti’s death a very “unfortunate incident,” took to Truth Social at 1:26 a.m. on Jan. 30 to call Pretti an “agitor” and “perhaps, insurrectionist.”
“Alex Pretti’s stock has gone way down with the just released video of him screaming and spitting in the face of a very calm and under control ICE Officer, and then crazily kicking in a new and very expensive government vehicle, so hard and violent, in fact, that the taillight broke off in pieces,” Trump wrote on Truth Social regarding the second video. “It was quite a display of abuse and anger, for all to see, crazed and out of control. The ICE Officer was calm and cool, not an easy thing to be under those circumstances! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.”
Trump’s comments about Pretti came after he shook up his deportation operations in Minnesota, sending in border czar Tom Homan to Minneapolis to replace Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino, who had previously been leading the administration’s on-the-ground operations, in the aftermath of the shooting.
Homan’s deployment to Minnesota, in which he will be reporting directly to Trump, was announced after statements from Bonvino, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem referring to Pretti as a “domestic terrorist” and claiming that he wanted to do “maximum damage” were contradicted by video footage of the shooting.
A White House official told the Washington Examiner that there “is an ongoing investigation into the death of Alex Pretti and President Trump has been clear he supports a fact-based investigation.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), speaking on the Senate floor later Friday, conceded there should be an investigation into Pretti’s death, but argued it was wrong to suggest the ICU nurse didn’t have an agenda.
“Look what happened 10 days before,” Graham said, referring to the Jan. 13 video, “Maybe excessive force. Let’s look. But don’t play a game like the people out in the streets that are harassing ICE that they’re not part of the problem.”
A source close to the White House, granted anonymity to speak candidly, told the Washington Examiner that it is still “very premature to call him a domestic terrorist or a peaceful protester,” pointing to the ongoing investigation and unseen body camera footage of the incident.
But, the source argued that the second video showed that Pretti was a “career protester.”
While the president and some of his allies appear ready to go back on the offense, not everyone in the party agrees with the tactic. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), who has called for Noem’s removal atop DHS, rebuked Trump’s comments about Pretti, saying there is “no place” for the rhetoric.
“Clearly, if you look at the video the week before, he was agitated, by definition, you don’t go in and kick anybody’s car, let alone a truck full of ICE agents, and not view that as an agitating event, right?” Tillis said to reporters on Friday. “Maybe that’s when they should have arrested him, because he actually damaged government property.”
He continued, “But ‘stock going down’ — My God, we’re talking about a man who died on the street, which, you know, we’ll let the investigation come out. It’s just no place for that. I don’t think the American people are gonna like that. We’re kind at the end of the day. We’re a little bit edgy, but we’re a pretty kind population, and I don’t think they like bullies in that image up there.”
Matthew Bartlett, a GOP strategist who was an appointee to the State Department in Trump’s first administration, said that while the second video was “more context,” it was “in no way a justification or an excuse” for the shooting of Pretti on Jan. 24.
“I would say, you know, you let the video stand for itself,” Bartlett said. “I would certainly not continue to pursue this narrative. I don’t think there’s any good that our country benefits from.”
Bartlett continued, “Again, it is context. I’m not sure it is going to change anyone’s mind, because it is a separate, unrelated incident, if anything. Again, I would not continue to dig on this issue. It seems, again, the president can be crazy. He is not stupid. He saw how this happened, how it unfolded. He saw the administration’s response. He chose Tom Homan. Let cooler heads prevail, and let’s try to, politically, find, you know, some firmer ground.”
The shootings of Pretti and Renee Good, a 37-year-old Minnesota resident and U.S. citizen who was killed earlier this month by an immigration enforcement officer, come as Republicans prepare to defend their control of the House and Senate in the 2026 midterm elections.
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A GOP operative, granted anonymity to speak about campaign operations, expressed plans to stay away from “discussing or really just litigating the situation as a whole” in GOP campaigns.
“That kind of goes for any of these situations that have happened over the past couple weeks,” the operative said. “I think we’re just talking about the issue more broadly. So I think what we’re trying to avoid on the messaging front, especially like in this national level, is like — All right, we can go back — Republicans, Democrats can go back and forth about these specific situations, but at the end of the day, DHS, ICE, is enforcing the laws that are on the books.”
“I think we’re making a certain effort to make that clear contrast. And I think the contrast is a national level, is, you know, Republicans are enforcing laws, Democrats are for lawlessness,” the operative continued. “I don’t think we’re going to stray away from the issue as a whole, immigration and border security, because it’s still our issue. But when it gets into these individual situations, you know, on the campaign side of things, I don’t think we really need to litigate it.”
Naomi Lim and Ramsey Touchberry contributed to this report.
