The fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by a Border Patrol agent over the weekend has Donald Trump “concerned” about the sustainability of his administration’s ongoing Minneapolis operations, according to Trump administration officials and allies.
These individuals acknowledged to NBC News that they needed a strategic shift amid a public uproar over Pretti’s killing, though the White House is still very much focused on its original agenda of cracking down on immigration and fraud.
Still, the changes made Monday are noticeable. Saturday’s shooting has prompted a leadership shakeup, a reduction of agents in the city, a reset with key Democratic officials in the state and an attempt to distance the president from some of the more extreme comments from some of his top advisers.
“The visuals were not playing well. He understands TV. … He saw it for himself,” said a Republican lawmaker who, like others in this article, were granted anonymity to speak candidly.
Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse and U.S. citizen, was fatally shot Saturday morning during a heated confrontation between federal agents and individuals protesting the federal government’s immigration crackdown in the city.
Multiple videos of the shooting and eyewitness accounts contradict the initial response from Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. They depicted Pretti as someone who was “brandishing” a firearm and trying to “massacre law enforcement. Top White House official Stephen Miller said Pretti was a “domestic terrorist” who tried to “assassinate federal law enforcement.”
Those initial statements, and the contradicting video evidence, prompted significant backlash — including from many in the Republican Party — toward the administration, which was already dealing with the fallout from an earlier ICE-related shooting in Minneapolis that killed Renée Nicole Good, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen.
“I am deeply troubled by the shootings in Minneapolis involving federal agents. Our Constitution provides citizens protection from the government. We have a right to free speech, to peaceably assemble and to bear arms,” Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., said on Monday.
“The president, I think, is obviously concerned about what he saw over the weekend,” said one Trump adviser. “He has always been exceptionally good at reading public perception, and understands this has not been handled well.”
Trump himself posted on social media in the hours after the shooting that Pretti was a “gunman” who had a weapon “loaded (with two additional full magazines), and ready to go!”
The adviser said the goal of immigration enforcement, which has always been a top administration priority, will not end, but Pretti’s death is, for the first time, forcing them to rethink what that will look like moving forward.
“Our supporters will continue to support a crackdown” on immigration, the person said. “But there is an understanding that this weekend changed some things.”
A person close to the White House said that part of the perception problem the administration is dealing with is the sheer number of agents that they say is needed for this kind of operation. More than 3,000 federal agents have been sent to Minneapolis; they currently outnumber Minneapolis’ police force nearly five-to-one.
“The problem is, in order to get the felons out it takes a massive team of federal agents,” the person said. “So you see 10, 12 or 60 people to get a guy. Then the crowd gets incited and the rhetoric heats up and people are blowing whistles and then you see the tear gas. And it’s like, ‘What are we doing?’
“I think the public perception is we need to make sure what we’re doing is done well and with excellence and get back to [focusing on] the worst of the worst,” they added.
Trump has publicly expressed frustration with the way his administration is being portrayed on a number of issues. In a Truth Social post on Jan. 19, he said there was “too much media attention on ICE” in Minnesota. The following day, during a rare appearance at the White House press briefing, Trump also mused, “Maybe I have bad public relations people. I think we’re doing a much better job than we’re able to promote. We’re not promoting. … It’s one of the reasons I’m doing this news conference.”
Trump on Monday morning announced he was sending border czar Tom Homan to Minneapolis to lead the administration’s efforts following the second fatal shooting in that city by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. He’ll be replacing Bovino, who has been the face of the hard-edged enforcement operation.
Bovino is set to leave Minneapolis on Tuesday, and there is an expectation that the number of federal agents in that city will be reduced, administration and law enforcement officials told NBC News. It was unclear how many federal agents would be departing.
During a White House briefing Monday, press secretary Karoline Leavitt distanced Trump from some of the more extreme comments coming from his top officials. When a reporter asked if he agreed that Pretti was a “domestic terrorist” — a term that Noem, as well as Miller, used — Leavitt declined to support their remarks.
“I have not heard the president characterize Mr. Pretti in that way,” she said. “However, I have heard the president say he wants to let the facts and the investigation lead itself.”
The decision to send Homan to Minneapolis is being seen by some as Trump pushing Noem to the sidelines, since Homan does not report to her as Bovino does.
“I’m not sure how else you can view that,” a person familiar with the move said. “This is a direct reflection of the White House not being happy with the reaction to all of this.”
Leavitt said Monday morning that Trump has “full trust and confidence in” Noem.
The Trump adviser said putting Homan atop the operation amounts to a reset following the backlash over the polarizing remarks from Noem and Bovino.
“Tom Homan helps with that,” the person said. “Not only is a different voice, but he also understands the underlying mission, which has not changed. The effort to remove illegals remains unchanged, but there needs to be a different approach here. The video is tough to get past.”
The person said that Noem was not directed by the White House to give her initial remarks on Pretti.
“I think she was freelancing a bit,” they said.
The elevation of Homan offered a lifeline to congressional Republicans, many of whom have been concerned about the administration’s actions in Minneapolis and the impact they could have on the 2026 midterms, as the public increasingly sours on federal agents’ sometimes violent tactics.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said it was a “positive development,” a sentiment echoed by several other congressional Republicans.
Underscoring the administration’s efforts to change its tone, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles spoke to Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on Saturday, according to a person familiar with discussions inside the White House.
Trump and Walz have been at odds since the latter was the Democratic vice presidential candidate in 2024. In recent weeks, Trump has accused Walz of “inciting Insurrection“ and the Justice Department is investigating Walz and other Minnesota Democrats over how the state has responded to the federal immigration crackdown.
On Monday, however, the president softened his tone.
Trump said he and Walz spoke by phone, and he struck a positive tone that would have been seen as unthinkable just days ago.
“It was a very good call, and we, actually, seemed to be on a similar wavelength,” Trump wrote in a social media post.
Walz’s office also called it a “productive call” and said Trump agreed to talk to the Department of Homeland Security about allowing state officials to conduct their own independent shooting investigations and decreasing the number of federal agents in his state.
Trump later said he also had a “very good telephone conversation” with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, another Democrat who has been a focus of Trump’s criticism.
As part of the effort to reframe the Minnesota operation, the person close to the White House said there will be renewed efforts on rooting out fraud in the state.
Trump’s focus on Minnesota began with conservative online influencers elevating a year-old scandal centered on a scheme to defraud a pandemic-era program in Minnesota’s Somali community.
“The narrative has changed because when you have a shooting incident, it changes everything,” the Trump adviser said. “Trump is sending Homan to Minnesota with the goal of getting refocused on the fraud side of this.”
An initial investigation began in 2022, under then-President Joe Biden’s administration. Since that time, there have been dozens of fraud-related charges and a growing number of convictions. But after renewed viral attention on right-wing social media channels in recent months, Trump started focusing a significant amount of attention, and resources, again on the issue.
There was also a notable shift Monday from ICE about how it publicly frames its agents’ work in Minneapolis. The agency’s social media feed is typically filled with posts about the people they have arrested and ICE’s hard-line approach to the Minneapolis operations. But on Monday, it tried to portray a softer side of ICE: It put up a post showing that agents in the city helped someone who was having trouble with their car in a parking lot.
“After discovering that his vehicle had a dead battery, the officers quickly offered their assistance,” read the post from ICE’s official account. “Using jumper cables from their own vehicle and with help from another community member, they successfully jump-started the car — ensuring he could safely continue on his way.”