The Trump administration’s false claims and shifting rhetoric about the killing of Alex Pretti – CNN Politics
US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino with Federal agents outside a convenience store on Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026, in Minneapolis. Angelina Katsanis / AP.Politics 5 min read
The Trump administration’s false claims and shifting rhetoric about the killing of Alex Pretti
By Daniel Dale, Updated 47 min ago
A photograph of the pistol recovered by federal agents after a shooting in Minneapolis, Minnesota is shown on a screen behind Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem during a news conference on January 24, 2026. Al Drago / Getty ImagesTop officials in President Donald Trump’s administration have responded to the killing of Alex Pretti by the Border Patrol in Minneapolis on Saturday with a torrent of claims that are either contradicted by video footage or unsupported by any evidence presented so far.
- Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem claimed Pretti “attacked” officers, an assertion echoed by FBI Director Kash Patel, but no footage available as of Sunday afternoon shows Pretti committing any attack.
- Noem claimed Pretti was “brandishing” a gun, but no available footage shows Pretti even holding a weapon in his hand at the scene; a concealed gun appeared to be taken from his waistband area by a federal agent moments before he was shot.
- White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller referred to Pretti as “an assassin” who “tried to murder federal agents,” Vice President JD Vance reposted this claim, and Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino (and the Department of Homeland Security in a social media post) said it “looks like” Pretti “wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.” But nobody has shown any evidence that Pretti sought to kill anyone, let alone perpetrate a massacre.
- Patel suggested that Pretti broke the law by carrying a concealed gun at a protest, but the Minneapolis police chief said Pretti had a permit to carry the gun and was allowed to have it on him as he was protesting in a public place.
Pretti’s parents issued a statement on Saturday saying, “The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting.” And in television interviews on Sunday, the administration declined to repeat some of its most incendiary allegations from Saturday about Pretti, who was a registered nurse in an intensive care unit at a Veterans Affairs facility.
Here is a look at how the Trump team’s shifting rhetoric squares with what is known about Pretti and the circumstances around his death.
The administration claimed that Pretti ‘attacked’ officers. But videos don’t show Pretti committing any attack
Noem told reporters Saturday: “This individual impeded the law enforcement officers and attacked them,” repeating the phrase “attacked them” moments later for emphasis. When Patel was asked about the shooting in a Sunday interview on Fox News, he responded, “You do not get to attack law enforcement officials in this country without any repercussions.”
No video of the incident available as of Sunday afternoon showed Pretti attacking officers.
Various footage shows him directing traffic at the site of an immigration enforcement operation, yelling at a federal agent who was interacting with other bystanders to “not push them into the traffic,” holding up a cell phone appearing to record agents, and stepping in front of an agent to intervene as the agent shoved a woman to the ground; Pretti appeared to make momentary contact with the agent with his right arm and left hand.
The agent then sprayed him with a chemical irritant and dragged him to the ground; other officers joined in the confrontation as Pretti appeared to resist, and one agent appeared to strike him repeatedly as he was on the ground.
In a Sunday interview with CNN’s Dana Bash, Bovino claimed Pretti “assaulted federal officers.” But when Bash pressed Bovino to explain what moment in the video showed Pretti committing such an assault, Bovino would not provide any specifics.
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