Trump says administration will ‘damp down a little’ on tensions in Minnesota after Prettyy shooting

President Donald Trump said his administration will “de-escalate a little bit” in Minnesota after a second fatal shooting of a U.S. citizen by a federal immigration officer there.

“The bottom line is, this is terrible. They both suck,” he said in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday.

Renee Good was shot and killed by an immigration officer in early January, and Alex Pretti died last weekend after being stopped by border agents.

Preity’s death sparked renewed local protests and a national public outcry, and drew criticism from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. Trump’s comments are the latest sign that his administration is backing away from action in Minnesota.

Ahead of a rally in Iowa on Tuesday night, Trump told other reporters that he believed the killing of Veterans Hospital intensive care nurse Pretty was a “very unfortunate incident.”

Asked by reporters if he agreed with Preti being designated a “domestic terrorist,” Trump said: “I haven’t heard of that.”

Trump later added: “He shouldn’t be carrying a gun.”

Shortly after the shooting, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Preti “is not here to peacefully protest, he is here to perpetuate violence” and accused him of “domestic terrorism.”

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) also said agents fired in self-defense after Pretty refused to disarm him.

Noem said Pretty was shot because he “brandished” the gun during the confrontation, but local authorities said the gun was legally registered and Pretty was shot after the gun was removed.

However, witnesses and local officials disputed this account, saying he was holding a mobile phone, not a weapon.

A preliminary report drafted by Customs and Border Protection also appeared to contradict the Department of Homeland Security’s initial version of events. Two agents allegedly shot Preeti.

There was no mention of Pretty reaching for a gun, according to a copy of the report seen by BBC America partner CBS News.

On Monday, the Department of Homeland Security withdrew Border Patrol Officer Gregory Bovino, the leader and figurehead of the Minnesota mission, from the state. The department said it was deploying White House border czar Tom Homan to take over there.

Homan posted on social media on Tuesday that he met with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and local law enforcement officials.

Pretty’s death, which comes two weeks after 37-year-old Renee Good was fatally shot, outraged residents and prompted renewed calls from state and city officials for the Trump administration to withdraw 3,000 immigration agents and officials from the area.

In an interview with Fox News, Trump appeared to defend the actions in Minnesota, saying “we took thousands of hardened criminals” out of the state “so their crime numbers are high.”

“It’s all settled and Tom Homan is there now,” he said, before adding that the government would “de-escalate the situation.”

Stephen Miller, a senior White House aide in charge of the administration’s deportation program, told CNN that the White House “provided clear guidance to the Department of Homeland Security that the additional force protection personnel assigned to Minnesota should be used to conduct fugitive operations to establish a physical barrier between arrest teams and vandals.”

“We are evaluating why the (U.S. Customs and Border Patrol) team may not have followed that protocol,” Miller said in a statement to CNN.

Several Republican leaders and lawmakers have called for an investigation into Pretty’s death, including Vermont Gov. Phil Scott and Nebraska Sen. Pete Ricketts.

“This weekend, the nation witnessed horrific circumstances,” Ricketts wrote on

A federal judge blocks the Department of Homeland Security from destroying or altering evidence.

Trump did not discuss the current situation in Minnesota in depth during his economic policy speech at a rally in Iowa on Tuesday night, but instead spoke more broadly about his immigration crackdown, citing a Harvard-Harris poll from December that showed 80% of Americans support his administration’s efforts to deport criminal illegal immigrants.