Kristi Noem is dealt hammer blow live on Fox News as Trump lawyer trashes claim Minneapolis victim Alex Pretti was 'domestic terrorist'
By: Katelyn Caralle (Mail Online)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Top ranks of the federal government are turning on Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and her defense of the killing of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis by an ICE agent over the weekend.
And federal immigration agents agree with some of the criticism of their top boss.
President Donald Trump's favorite network Fox News grilled Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche on Monday over reports of the internal frustrations on DHS messaging in the wake of the horrific shooting of the 37-year-old VA nurse.
Fox & Friends host Griff Jenkins confronted Attorney General Pam Bondi's No. 2 on whether he agreed that Pretti's actions amounted to the legal definition of 'domestic terrorism,' like Noem claimed.
'Look, I don't think anybody thinks that they were comparing what happened on Saturday to the legal definition of domestic terrorism,' Blanche finally replied after trying to deflect the question by criticizing Minnesota's Democratic leadership.
'And you're right — to the extent there's body cam or other videos that witnesses are still providing to us. So I'm not describing it as anything except for a tragedy,' he added.
Noem said at a Saturday press conference: 'When you perpetuate violence against a government because of ideological reasons and for reasons to resist and perpetuate violence, that is the definition of domestic terrorism.'
Even Trump issued a subtle rebuke to Noem's flubbed leadership in Minnesota by announcing Monday morning he is appointing White House border czar Tom Homan to take lead in Minneapolis.
'I am sending Tom Homan to Minnesota tonight,' Trump wrote on Truth Social. 'He has not been involved in that area, but knows and likes many of the people there. Tom is tough but fair, and will report directly to me.'
Top government officials and DHS agents are turning on Secretary Kristi Noem after she called Minneapolis shooting victim Alex Pretti a 'domestic terrorist' and claimed that he intended to 'massacre' immigration enforcement agents
Pretti was shot multiple times by officials, but video appears to show he was disarmed of his concealed carry handgun before the first shot was fired
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche pushed back on Noem's claim that Pretti was a 'domestic terrorist' during a Fox & Friends interview on Monday morning
Homan and Noem have a longstanding rivalry over conflicting perspectives on how to handle illegal immigration and Trump's mass deportation agenda.
And Noem's tenure at DHS has been riddled with damning claims of turf wars with other leaders including against CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott and some reports indicated her position in the Trump administration was on the chopping block on several occasions within the first year.
Unnamed DHS officials told Fox congressional correspondent Bill Melugin on Sunday that Noem's messaging in the wake of Pretti's death are 'catastrophic' for morale and 'eroding trust and credibility.'
Some compared it to when Democrats tirelessly tried to convince Americans that the southern border was closed despite thousands of illegal immigrants flooding into the US every day during former President Joe Biden's term.
DHS' response to the shooting is 'a case study on how not to do crisis PR,' the sources added.
Noem said at a press conference that Pretti, who was killed on Saturday from multiple gun shots by an ICE agent, intended to conduct a 'massacre' of federal immigration agents and brought a handgun to the protest in order to inflict 'maximum damage.'
But bystander video showing multiple angles of the incident have viewers saying the DHS claims are not accurate and do not show him ever reaching or unholstering his concealed weapon.
Forensic audio analysis counted 10 shots at Pretti in under five seconds.
Pretti, 37, was a Veterans Affairs ICU nurse in Minneapolis, Minnesota who was shot and killed by agents in Customs and Border Protection flak jackets
Trump hasn't rushed to Noem and the agent's defense, as he usually does.
A White House official told conservative radio host Erick Erickson that Trump is not happy with how DHS has handled the response to the shooting.
On Truth Social, Trump said the video of the incident was 'a horrible thing to watch,' but maintained defense of ICE agents by calling them 'patriots' and demanding Americans let them carry out their orders to find and detain illegal immigrants in Minneapolis.
One agent told Fox that DHS is only 'making the situation worse' with their messaging and another said they are 'fed up.'
'DHS is wrong,' an agent went so far to claim, adding: 'We are losing this war, we are losing the base and the narrative.'
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"Thin Ice" is a good description!!!
I predict Nick Fuentes will hire her
There's an olde saying; "Birds of a feather flock together|"
Donald Trump has gone into damage control over the killing of yet another U.S. citizen in Minneapolis, sending in his border czar and effectively marginalizing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
With polls showing that Americans are increasingly turning on ICE—and Noem facing internal dissent over her response to the shooting of veteran affairs nurse Alex Pretti—the president announced on Monday morning that Tom Homan would be sent to Minneapolis in a bid to de-escalate tensions.
Border Czar Tom Homan and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem are reportedly locked in a feud. Spencer Platt/Getty Images
“He has not been involved in that area, but knows and likes many of the people there. Tom is tough but fair, and will report directly to me,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The move is significant given that Noem has previously been at odds with Homan, who prioritized deportations of “the worst of the worst” criminals and gang members.
In contrast, insiders say Noem, nicknamed ICE Barbie for her love of cosplaying on immigration operations, wanted broader public round-ups and the theatrics of promoting them, often bypassing Homan in the process.
Noem's love for dolling up for the cameras on ICE raids has earned her the nickname “ICE Barbie.” Homeland Security/Handout/Getty Images
But tensions escalated in Minneapolis over the weekend after Pretti, 37, was shot by federal agents after he filmed an immigration operation on his phone.
Noem, alongside Customs and Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino, sought to justify the shooting as an act of self-defense and painted Pretti as a “domestic terrorist” intent on harming law enforcement.
“This is a violent riot when you have someone showing up with weapons and are using them to assault law enforcement officers,” she said on Saturday in the aftermath of the shooting.
A picture of Alex Pretti is left at a makeshift memorial in the area where Pretti was shot dead a day earlier by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on January 25, 2026. OCTAVIO JONES/AFP via Getty Images
The claim came despite multiple videos appearing to contradict her version of events, and the fact that Pretti had a permit to conceal-carry a gun, as allowed under Minnesota law.
Notably, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal , Trump refused to back Noem’s claim that Pretti’s shooting was justified, repeatedly declining to say if the agent who killed him had “done the right thing.”
His decision to send in Homan came as internal dissent over DHS’s messaging is reportedly boiling over. Fox News reporter Bill Melugin said he had spoken to more than half a dozen federal immigration officials who saw DHS’s messaging as “a case study on how not to do crisis PR.”
According to CNN, multiple DHS insiders were also “furious” after watching bystander footage of the shooting, saying Noem’s public statements no longer match what Americans can see themselves. One official told the network: “The department needs a law enforcement leader, not a sycophant.”
Despite the well-known tension between Trump’s Homeland Security Secretary and his border czar, Noem took to social media on Monday to welcome the decision.
“This is good news for peace, safety, and accountability in Minneapolis,” she said.
“I have worked closely with Tom over the last year and he has been a major asset to our team—his experience and insight will help us in our wide-scale fraud investigations, which have robbed Americans, and will help us to remove even more public safety threats and violent criminal illegal aliens off the of streets of Minneapolis.
“We continue to call on the leadership in Minnesota to allow for state and local partnership in our public safety mission.”
Footage taken of the shooting from multiple angles shows Pretti apparently recording federal agents as they shove a woman, then placing his body between the woman and agents as she is pushed.
I guess the next DHS action codename will be Share the Chaos.
And Noem's new codename is 'Dachau Barbie'...
Trump adores the body by Fisher mind by Matell types.
Ms. Noem, when violence is inflicted on a population for ideological reasons and carried out under color of state authority, that is not law enforcement. That is government-sponsored terrorism.
We have here a cabinet-level person who lies constantly to the American people... and we are asking ourselves if Trump will fire her.
What does that say about America?
He lies too?
The rats are jumping off the ship -