5 Major Mistakes by Team Trump, Miller, Noem, etc
Making it personal—
In Trump’s endless retribution tour, he made his war on MN personal. He had to attack Gov. Tim Walz [who called him weird in his VP challenge and won’t hand over voter data] and Rep. Ilhan Omar [who challenges his racism and ignorance every day with her very existence].
This attack on MN was never about immigration status.
Florida and Texas, not Minnesota, have the highest shares of undocumented immigrants JD Vance said Minneapolis leads the nation in undocumented immigration. Census and research data show otherwise…
There are about 130,000 immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally in Minnesota, according to 2023 Pew Research Center data, the most recent year available. They represent about 2% of the state’s population and about 1% of the unauthorized population nationwide...78 metro areas have higher proportions of immigrants in the U.S. illegally than Minneapolis-St. Paul.
www.poynter.org/...
This attack on MN was never about corruption. If it was, they would have sent forensic accountants with laptops, not 3,000 morons with guns.
Somalis represent about 2% of Minnesota’s population... Somalis came to Minnesota starting in the 1990s fleeing a civil war, some as refugees while others were sponsored by family members or moved from other states. Most are U.S. citizens, either through naturalization or birth. [Also www.poynter.org/… ]
Mistaking MN Nice for weakness—
In the video below from Dec 8, 2025 on TikTok by Mercado Media, this retired Protestant couple signed on to support their Catholic neighbors by being witnesses and observers in case ICE/DHS/CBP try to harass folks just trying to attend a mass service. Their demeanor is mild and reserved, but when Trump’s thugs tried to intimidate them, their Minnesota Nice turned into granite.
They were surprised, disturbed, and [quietly] mad as hell. Minnesotans pride themselves in their rational, thoughtful reserve, but not shouting is not the same as being passive or a pushover. This couple made a promise to support their neighbors, they fulfilled that promise, and now that they have experienced the same threats aimed at others, believe me, they will return every Sunday they possibly can afterwards. See www.tiktok.com/...
Sending his thugs to attack a northern state in the winter—
x
Up at Silverwood Park in St Anthony, MN, they built an ice carousel. Drill a hole in the ice, put in an outboard motor, cut the ice in a big circle, fire up the outboard, ice carousel.
People do fun weird shit outside in Minnesota all winter long. Park was packed. It’s delightful here.
— John Moe (@johnmoe.bsky.social) 2026-02-03T01:17:30.479Z
Thinking their lies matter more than our eyes—
We saw videos of the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. I will not show them here. In the moments before their deaths neither was the aggressor or prevented agents from completing their actual jobs.
The Trump lie machine began before their bodies were cold.
We Americans are not buying what Noem, Homan, Miller, Leavitt, FOX, or Trump are selling
Trump officials stick "terrorist" label on Americans killed by DHS
For the second time in less than a month, President Trump's top officials rushed to declare that a U.S. citizen killed by U.S. immigration agents was a "domestic terrorist."
Why it matters: The Trump administration isn't waiting for an investigation before sharing conclusions about the Jan. 7 killing of Renee Nicole Good and the Jan. 24 killing of Alex Pretti.
- Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller both accused Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse at a VA hospital, of being a domestic terrorist.
- "Violence against a government because of ideological reasons and for reasons to resist and to perpetuate violence. That is the definition of domestic terrorism," Noem said at a Saturday press conference at FEMA's National Response Coordination Center.
- Noem did not say what evidence there was to back up their claims on Pretti's ideology: "He was there to perpetuate violence, and he was asked to show up and to continue to resist by a governor who's irresponsible and has a long history of corruption and lying, and we won't stand for it anymore," she said.
www.axios.com/...
Thinking MN whites wouldn’t care—
I suspect that Trump’s cabal thought they could send their shock troops to one of the whitest states in the country and get away with kidnapping all the POCs that they wanted. Maybe they believed the push-back in LA and Chicago only happened because they were diverse population cities. And Portland has people dressed as frogs; who can argue with folks in costumes?
Trump’s masked gangs began asking white folks in MN where their Latino, Asian, and Somali neighbors were. This is no different than being asked “where are your Jews” in Berlin in 1939, is it? And lots of folks in Minneapolis and St Paul figured that out.
They responded with marches, and neighborhood patrols, and whistles and car horns.
With parents guarding schools. With businesses and UMN depts carpooling staff to work.
With organizations bringing food to neighbors, so they didn’t have have risk it.
Do I expect a cookie or a gold star for this?
I do not.
Neither did Good or Pretti.
They didn’t show up because they thought they were in danger themselves.
They were in danger because they showed up for their neighbors.
My demographic, white people, voted Trump into power. Twice.
It is right that my demographic take the lead in fighting back now.
It is on us to fix the mess we, collectively, made.
This is going to be a long year.
A long decade. A time when every election matters.
And definitely a long-term project to create the America we want and need.
