MAGA Is Already Rewriting the ICE Shooting in Minneapolis

Trump administration officials and MAGA World attempt to rewrite the Minneapolis shootings.

The shooting occurred Wednesday morning when several masked agents — later identified by Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin as members of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency — approached a vehicle. Video footage shared on social media appears to show a masked officer asking the driver to exit the vehicle before grabbing the door handle. At this point, the driver appears to reverse, before moving forward and turning. Another masked federal agent, standing near the front of the vehicle, pulled out a gun and fired at the vehicle, killing Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old woman.

The masked officer who shot at the vehicle was identified by the Minnesota Star Tribune as ICE Agent Jonathan Ross. McLaughlin did not immediately respond to an email asking whether DHS could confirm the Star Tribune’s information.

Almost immediately, federal officials exposed Good as the perpetrator of the crime. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called Good’s actions an act of “domestic terrorism,” adding that the victim had “weaponized his vehicle” and that the agent involved had simply “followed his training.” Later Wednesday, in an article for Truth Social, President Donald Trump wrote that Good “viciously” knocked down the agent while blaming the “radical left.” At a press conference Thursday morning, Noem doubled down, once again calling Good a “domestic terrorist” while falsely claiming that the officers involved had been “surrounded, assaulted and blocked by protesters.” On Thursday, Vice President JD Vance claimed that Good was a “victim of left-wing ideology” and that she had “[thrown] their car in front of ICE agents,” adding, “You must be brainwashed a little. »

The administration’s efforts to immediately distort the narrative and deflect blame from agents Trump empowered to target communities across the country is something the current administration has done repeatedly. This case, however, is arguably one of the most egregious examples to date, given how far the government-sanctioned narrative deviates from the reality shown in video footage of the incident shared online.

Global MAGA influencers quickly followed suit. Trump’s decision to blame the “radical left” was echoed by his most ardent supporters online, some of whom predicted massive left-wing violence following the incident.

“She was trying to organize an illegal blockade of the road to interfere with ICE agents, then she hit one of them with her car when they tried to apprehend her,” wrote podcaster Matt Walsh on X, in an article viewed nearly 700,000 times. “It’s not even a failure. Completely justified. She is 100% responsible for her own death.”

Video footage of the incident appears to directly contradict Walsh’s claim that Good “rammed his car” into the officer who shot him through the windshield and driver’s window. Local politicians have also disputed the claim: Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey called the administration’s version of events “bullshit” and a “trash narrative.” Frey also said ICE should “fuck about Minneapolis.” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz also dismissed the government’s rhetoric, instead blaming Trump’s policies that he said are “designed to generate fear, headlines and strife…Today, that recklessness cost someone’s life.”

This hasn’t deterred other influencers and content creators, however. “The Minneapolis ICE shooting can now be 100% confirmed to be self-defense based on this new video,” Robby Starbuck, a visiting scholar at the influential Heritage Foundation, wrote on X. “The deceased anti-ICE driver clearly HIT the ICE agent who opened fire with his car. This is classic self-defense.”