MALADMINSTRATION II HAS LOST THE PLOT

In the face of public backlash to his goons’ murder of Alex Pretti on Saturday, Trump has continued to operate according to his SOP. He’s now moved to Extort the Opposition to declare a win. After Pam Bondi wrote Governor Walz late Saturday, with an extortion demand that Minnesota turn over to the federal government information on their welfare system, end the policy of sanctuary cities and turn over the state’s voter rolls from the 2020 election, in order to have Bondi withdraw the ICE occupation force from Minneapolis - proving that the invasion was never about immigration enforcement - Trump has doubled down with a demand issued Sunday on Lies Anti-Social calling on Walz to turn over all undocumented immigrants in prisons, with warrants or arrested, and demanded that Democratic officials in the state cooperate with his goon squad. He’s also calling for Congress to pass legislation to “END Sanctuary Cities.” In a Sunday press conference, Walz responded to Bondi’s demand: “I would just give a pro tip to the attorney general. There’s 2 million documents in the Epstein files we’re still waiting on. Go ahead and work on those.”

Some Republicans are beginning to speak out. New York Rep. Andrew Garbarino - who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee and is a potentially vulnerable member come November - said after Pretti’s death that he wants top D.H.S. officials to testify before his committee. Meanwhile, on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday morning, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (of all people) said “Americans are asking themselves, ‘What is the endgame? What is the solution?’ And we believe in federalism and state rights. And nobody likes feds coming into their state. And so, what’s the goal right now? Is it to deport every single non-U.S. citizen? I don’t think that’s what Americans want. We have to stop politicizing this. We need real solutions on immigration reform.”

Everybody’s favorite piece of permanent High School annoying shit, Stephen Miller, got a pretty solid response to his post that Alex Pretti was a “domestic terrorist” who deserved to be murdered by his ICE goons. He wrote, “A would-be assassin tried to murder federal law enforcement and the official Democrat account sides with the terrorists.” The official Democratic Party account responded: “You’re a fucking liar with blood on your hands.” Author Nick Bryant also responded to Miller, writing, “The ‘would-be assassin’ was Alex J. Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse at the Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in Minneapolis. No video evidence that he brandished or tried to use his gun. He held up a phone.” Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau replied, “Fuck you, you lying piece of fascist shit.” Glenn Greenwald also weighed in: “Even if you want to justify this ICE killing of an American, it’s a blatant lie to claim that ‘a would-be assassin tried to murder federal law enforcement.’ That didn’t happen. Also, automatically labelling Americans killed by ICE as ‘terrorists’ is the Israelization of the US.” Professor Garett Jones said, “Stop importing your autocratic Belarusian values to America. Heritage Americans don’t want your culture transplant, Stephen.”

On Sunday, Trump announced on Lies Anti-Social that he will impose 100 percent tariffs on Canada if they start importing more goods from China. (Canada signed a preliminary trade agreement last week with China, partly in response to Trump’s continued economic and military threats.) It’s an open question whether Ottawa will back down or seek even stronger ties to other nations as the U.S.-Canada alliance unravels. Canada’s working hard to end all trade with the US, so Trump’s threat carries little weight north of the border.

For months, Trump has been threatening to withhold federal funding from states that have resisted his agenda - a pressure campaign that has largely failed to bend Democratic governors to his will. But it could have significant, unintended political consequences for Republican candidates in those states, threatening G.O.P. control of the House. Of the 18 congressional races in 2026 that are considered most competitive, seven are in the blue states his most recent campaign of intimidation has targeted. Democrats only need to pick up three seats to take back the House.

Sen. Chris Murphy said Sunday he believes Maladministration II’s deployment of federal immigration personnel to cities nationwide is part of a quest to “take control” of the midterm elections. Appearing on CNN’s State of the Union, he said: “It has always been, I think, the fear, and now I think closer to the reality that the Trump administration is creating this mayhem, particularly in cities in swing states, in order to take control of the election, to say, ‘Oh, the city’s out of control, the state’s out of control, you can’t trust the state government, we just need to run the election in November.’”

Sunday, more than 60 CEOs of Minnesota-based companies signed a letter urging “state, local and federal officials to work together to find real solutions.” The companies said that the recent tumult in Minnesota has caused “widespread disruption and tragic loss of life.” Among the signatories to the letter released by the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce are incoming Target CEO Michael Fiddelke; William Brown, the chairman and CEO of 3M; Brian Sikes, the chair and CEO of food giant Cargill; and Stephen Hemsley, the CEO of UnitedHealt. Other signatories include the Minnesota Vikings, Mayo Clinic, General Mills, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, Hormel, Medtronic, U.S. Bancorp, and Xcel Energy. “In this difficult moment for our community, we call for peace and focused cooperation among local, state and federal leaders to achieve a swift and durable solution that enables families, businesses, our employees, and communities across Minnesota to resume our work to build a bright and prosperous future,” the letter reads. Yeah, that’s pretty wussy, but getting anything from these people is a big deal. And they’re the ones Republican lawmakers listen to.

This doesn’t have anything to do withour national crisis, but it’s news I personally liked: Science fiction writers and major pop-culture conventions, led by San Diego Comic-Con, are actively opposing the inclusion of artificial intelligence (AI) in creative works, setting strict bans to protect human artistry. Following intense backlash from artists and fans, SDCC reversed a policy that previously allowed AI-generated art, banning all such material from its 2026 Art Show. GalaxyCon, which operates 14+ conventions, instituted a “sweeping AI ban” in August 2025. Dragon Con also took action, with police removing a vendor selling AI-generated art. DC Comics President Jim Lee has stated the company will never support AI, saying, “not now, not ever”. The Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association updated its Nebula Award rules in December 2025 to disqualify any work created in part or in whole by generative AI.

Sunday, Corporal Couchfucker suggested that Minnesota officials invited the killing of ICU nurse Alex Pretti in an unhinged defense of the Trump administration’s deportation operation. He claimed on X that local officials “created the chaos so they can have moments like yesterday, where someone tragically dies and politicians get to grandstand about the evils of enforcing the border.” “A couple of off duty ICE and CBP officers were going to dinner in Minneapolis,” he wrote. “They were doxed and their location revealed, and the restaurant was then mobbed. The officers were locked in the restaurant, and local police refused to respond to their pleas for help (as they’ve been directed by local authorities). Eventually, their fellow federal agents came to their aid.” He added, “This is just a taste of what’s happening in Minneapolis because state and local officials refuse to cooperate with immigration enforcement. The solution is staring everyone in the face. I hope authorities in Minneapolis stop this madness.” Walz fired back while speaking to the press on Sunday, saying, “The world knows how he died. He died at the hands of ICE agents on the streets of Minneapolis.”

In Minneapolis Sunday, the Minnesota Department of Corrections took the extraordinary step of launching its own website to combat lies from the Department of Homeland Terror. Its first major announcement suggested that Bovino had lied about the Border Patrol operation that was underway when agents killed Alex Pretti. The MDOC expressed condolences to the family and loved ones of Alex Pretti and said that although Bovino claimed that the operation was targeting a man with a significant criminal history, that information was false. The individual Bovino identified had never been in custody in Minnesota, and records showed only traffic-related offenses for him. Records did show, though, that he had been in federal immigration custody during Maladministration I and had been released.

MAGA supporters who support gun ownership are appalled by statements like that of FBI director Kash Patel, who told the Fox News Channel’s Maria Bartiromo, “You cannot bring a firearm loaded with multiple magazines to any sort of protest that you want. It’s that simple. You don’t have the right to break the law and incite violence.” But Pretti had a license to carry a weapon, and he did not brandish it. President Rob Doar of the Minnesota Gun Owners Law Center noted that Pretti had the right to carry a gun in that situation and that it shouldn’t be necessary “to choose between exercising your First Amendment rights or your Second Amendment rights.” He expressed concern that “our government and agents of our government are not engaging in good faith with what we’re seeing with our own eyes.”

G. Elliot Morris of Strength in Numbers noted today that even the Republican-leaning Rasmussen polls have shown that 59% of Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of immigration, while only 39% approve. In Strength in Numbers today, he reported that “Trump’s 2024 coalition has come undone.” He explained that “[y]oung voters, non-white voters, and low-turnout voters who swung to Trump from 2020 to 2024 have swung back against him in force. In many cases, these groups are even more anti-Trump now than they were ahead of the 2020 election.” Trump’s poll number are underwater in 15 states he won last year.

Sunday the editorial boards of both Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal and his New York Post urged the administration to pause its ICE operations in Minneapolis after the killing of Alex Pretti. The Wall Street Journal’s famously right-wing editorial board warned that “[t]he Trump Administration spin on this simply isn’t believable.” It continued: “Ms. Noem and Mr. Miller aren’t credible spokesmen. Their social-media and cable-TV strategy is to own the libs, rather than to persuade Americans. This is backfiring against Republicans…. Mr. Miller’s mass deportation methods are turning immigration, an issue Mr. Trump owned in 2024, into a political liability for Republicans in 2026. Americans don’t want law enforcement shooting people in the street or arresting five-year-old boys.”

Tonight, the editorial board of the New York Post warned that Trump’s ICE actions in Minneapolis are “backfiring.” “Swing voters…see US citizens dying at federal agents’ hands, and recoil in horror.” It concluded: “Mr. President, the American people didn’t vote for these scenes and you can’t continue to order them to not believe their lying eyes.”

Yesterday, after Alex Pretti’s death, the son of a man Pretti had cared for at the VA hospital published a video of Pretti speaking at his father’s deathbed. “Today we remember that freedom is not free,” Pretti said. “We have to work at it, nurture it, protect it, and even sacrifice for it. May we never forget and always remember our brothers and sisters who have served so that we may enjoy the gift of freedom. So in this moment, we remember and give thanks for their dedication and selfless service to our nation in the cause of our freedom. In this solemn hour, we give them our honor, and our gratitude. And we give you ours, Alex.

Strength in Numbers reported last night: “This week brought a new New York Times/Siena University poll with numbers that confirm what Strength In Numbers has been reporting since early 2025: Trump’s 2024 coalition has come undone. Young voters, non-white voters, and low-turnout voters who swung to Trump from 2020 to 2024 have swung back against him in force. In many cases, these groups are even more anti-Trump now than they were ahead of the 2020 election.”

In the face of all this, it appears we are at a TACO moment. Whenever Trump sees too much cost to whatever it is he is doing, he backs down and then claims it was what he was going to do all along. This morning he said he had had a “very nice phone call” with Governor Walz. The Trump TACO always involves settling the final blame on someone else, and this time it appears to be ICE Barbie. The word is that Susie Wiles and Stephen Miller both see her as incompetent, and they are also pissed that she keeps Corey Lewandowski around. Trump announced he was sending Tom Homan - who reports directly to him - to Minnesota to supervise what the goons are doing, cutting Noem out of the picture. With what has happened in the past month in Minneapolis, ICE - and the entire “massive deportation scheme” have lost all public support. When they leave Minnesota, they will have great difficulty going anywhere else. Local and state governments new see the public supports them in opposing these surges. It’s very sad that it took the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti to wake people up, but the result now is that Trump is seen as a loser on his signature issue.

Proving the invasion of Minnesota was nothing more than a PR stunt, Border Patrol agents in Minnesota are expected to leave the state after Saturday’s fatal shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.

We are seeing a huge win for those who oppose Trump and his authoritarian program. He is now underwater on every issue. Chris Madel, the GOP candidate for governor in Minnesota ended his campaign this morning, saying he could not support what Operation Metro Surge has turned into, and he did not wish to be a member of a party that would support those actions. Things like that are the signs that the cracks in Maladministration II’s facade two weeks ago are now major fissures. Operation metro Surge may turn out to be the Turning Point of our fight to protect and restore the constitutional democratic republic. Only time will tell, but there is reason for optimism amidst the gloom. But when Greg Abbot of all people says that ICE needs reform to “restore respect”, Trump Inc. Has gotten way the hell out over their skis.

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