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| (AP) |
After watching the Trump administration get away with a veritable crime wave in the first year of Dear Leader's second term, you might expect members of the president's team to be unworried about ever being held accountable for their wrongdoing. But a new report from historian Heather Cox Richardson suggests Trumpers are unsettled after an ICE agent on Wednesday (1/7/26) fatally shot a Minneapolis woman during a White House-ordered immigration-enforcement operation in Minnesota.
With all of the untruths that spew forth from Trump and his allies, you might think they would be good at lying by now. But the killing of Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother of three who never has been charged with anything by law enforcement beyond a traffic ticket, seems to have the White House shaken -- to the point that key officials are struggling to keep their stories straight. The staff, however does seem united in trying to whitewash the whole event as quickly as possible. Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, and Trump himself all have issued statements essentially blaming Good for getting in the way of a bullet fired by ICE officer Jonathan Ross. Trump even suggested "the Radical Left," whatever that is, was responsible for the shooting, despite the support of many liberals for gun control. Perhaps dementia really has turned the president's brain to mush.
Cox Richardson, likely the most prominent and respected voice in today's social-media world, says the muddled response of the White House indicates finding the truth behind the Minneapolis shooting hardly will be a top priority of officialdom. At this point, a concerted cover up effort seems more likely.
Writing at her "Letters From An American" Substack page, Richardson sets the scene for what led to the shooting of Renee Good -- and provides insights on what might happen next. Early indications are that the Trumpian response hardly will be a shining example of government transparency. Richardson makes it clear that Good, on the way to drop off her 6-year-old son at school, encountered a frenetic scene that likely set her nerves on edge:
[Wednesday] morning (1/8/26), a federal agent from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good as she was driving away from ICE agents on a residential street in Minneapolis, Minnesota. According to Minneapolis leaders, Good was a legal observer: a volunteer trained to observe police conduct in case of future legal action.
Three videos taken at the scene show a maroon SUV perpendicular on a snowy street. A silver SUV driving up the street stops. Two officers wearing badges that say “police” and body armor get out of the vehicle and walk toward the maroon car.
One of them says, “Get out of the f*cking car,” and the other reaches through the open driver’s-side window while trying to open the door. The driver backs up the vehicle, and straightens the wheel as if making a three-point turn. Then she starts slowly to accelerate along the street.
Gov. Tim Walz recently accused the Trump administration of "waging a war" on Minnesota and vowed to fight the White House until the end of his term. Anyone wishing to assign blame for Renee Good's death likely would be wise to focus on Trump's determination to unleash chaos in a Blue state that he lost in 2024 to Kamala Harris -- 50.92 percent to 46.68. For good measure, Trump lost Minnesota to Joe Biden in 2020 by a margin of 7.12 percent. Before that, Trump lost the 2016 race to Hillary Clinton by 1.52 percent. Democrats now have 12 consecutive presidential wins in the "Land of Lakes." Is it any wonder that Trump, given his documented thirst for retribution, appears to be exacting revenge on Minnesota? Cox Richardson reports:
Yesterday the Trump administration deployed federal agents and officers to Minneapolis for what they called the largest federal immigration operation ever carried out, eventually planning to deploy 2,000 agents. The administration has been attacking Minnesota’s Somali community, and Homeland Security Kristi Noem was present at an ICE arrest yesterday, telling a man in handcuffs, who Homeland Security later said was from Ecuador, “You will be held accountable for your crimes.”
Rebecca Santana and Michael Balsamo of the Associated Press reported that Minnesota governor Tim Walz called the deployment “a war that’s being waged against Minnesota.” “You’re seeing that we have a ridiculous surge of apparently 2,000 people not coordinating with us, that are for a show of cameras,” he said.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) insists that its actions are protecting American citizens from “the worst of the worst” criminal immigrants, so the shooting of a young white woman, the mother of a young child, and how that would look, made it appear eager to smear Good.
It immediately put out a statement that looked much like what it said after officers shot 30-year-old Chicago teaching assistant Marimar Martinez in October when it claimed she had “ambushed” agents, ramming their vehicle before an agent shot her five times. Footage showed that, in fact, the agents had rammed her car, and after the shooting one had sent a text message bragging: “I fired 5 rounds and she had 7 holes. Put that in your book boys.” The Department of Justice dropped the charges it had filed against her, asking a judge to “dismiss the indictment and exonerate” Martinez and her passenger.
All of that raises this question: Does the administration's version of events square with evidence now on hand, in an environment where many Americans have viewed videos of the incident that have been widely viewed online? Richardson says the answer is no:
Today, DHS posted on social media that “ICE officers in Minneapolis were conducting targeted operations when rioters began blocking ICE officers and one of these violent rioters weaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them—an act of domestic terrorism. An ICE officer, fearing for his life, the lives of his fellow law enforcement and the safety of the public, fired defensive shots. He used his training and saved his own life and that of his fellow officers. The alleged perpetrator was hit and is deceased. The ICE officers who were hurt are expected to make full recoveries. This is the direct consequence of constant attacks and demonization of our officers by sanctuary politicians who fuel and encourage rampant assaults on our law enforcement who are facing 1,300% increase in assaults against them and an 8,000% increase in death threats.” (Whoever wrote this post must have gone to the same school where Donald Trump "learned" math.)
Trump jumped in with his own fact-free post lying that the shooter had been run over: “I have just viewed the clip of the event which took place in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is a horrible thing to watch. The woman screaming was, obviously, a professional agitator, and the woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot at her in self defense. Based on the attached clip, it is hard to believe that he is alive, but is now recovering in the hospital. The situation is being studied, in its entirety, but the reason these incidents are happening is because the Radical Left is threatening, assaulting, and targeting our Law Enforcement Officers and ICE Agents on a daily basis. They are just trying to do the job of MAKING AMERICA SAFE. We need to stand by and protect our Law Enforcement Officers from this Radical Left Movement of Violence and Hate! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP”
The administration appears to be trying to sow confusion on purpose. But Americans might be wising up because the effort seems to be flailing, Richardson writes:
That both DHS and Trump posted false accounts of the shooting even as there are four videos circulating that reveal those accounts to be lies shows they no longer are making any attempt to justify their actions. Instead, they are demanding Americans abandon reality in favor of whatever the administration says. If this works, it would be a demonstration of totalitarian power, the ability to control how people think. Accepting that lie is a loyalty test.
But it is not working.
First of all, Sarah Jeong of The Verge noted that the reason there are so many videos is because “people cared enough to show up where ICE was and record them. It wasn’t just one or two legal observers, and when Good was shot, they didn’t abandon her.”
Second, elected Democrats are pushing back. “I’ve seen the video,” Governor Walz wrote. “Don’t believe this propaganda machine. The state will ensure there is a full, fair, and expeditious investigation to ensure accountability and justice.” To reporters, he said: “We’ve been warning for weeks that the Trump administration’s dangerous, sensationalized operations are a threat to our public safety, that someone was going to get hurt. Just yesterday I said exactly that. What we’re seeing is the consequences of governance designed to generate fear, headlines, and conflict. It’s governing by reality TV and today that recklessness cost someone their life. I’ve reached out to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and I’m waiting to hear back.”
He told Minnesotans that, like them, he was angry, but “they want a show. We can’t give it to them. We cannot. If you protest and express your First Amendment rights, please do so peacefully as you always do. We can’t give them what they want…. To Americans, I ask you this. Please stand with Minneapolis.”
Walz prepared to call out the Minnesota National Guard if necessary, demonstrating that there would be no need for Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act and send in troops. He reminded Minnesotans that the Minnesota National Guard does not wear masks and that it is theirs, not Trump’s.
Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey told reporters that the DHS statement was “bullsh*t. This was an agent recklessly using power that resulted in somebody dying, getting killed.” “To the family, I’m so deeply sorry,” Frey said. “There’s nothing that I can say right now that’s going to make you or your relatives, friends of the victim feel any better.” To ICE and other federal agents deployed in Minnesota, he added: “Get the f*ck out of Minneapolis. We do not want you here. Your stated reason for being in this city is to create some kind of safety, and you are doing exactly the opposite. People are being hurt. Families are being ripped apart…and now somebody is dead.”
As drama unfolds in Minnesota, Cox Richardson notes that the political world has not come to a stop. In fact, Trump apparently sees it as an opportunity to once again try to use his office for financial gain:
Something else was going on today. At the same time the administration was pouring gasoline on the domestic fire ICE had sparked and the international fire it had set with attacks on Venezuela and threats against Greenland, it was quietly making a number of major financial moves.
The smallest of those moves came as Trump asked Fulton County, Georgia, for a $6.2-million payout in attorneys’ fees and costs after the criminal charges against him in Georgia were dismissed. Trump had been indicted for trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia by pressuring Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensberger to “find” 11,780 votes to give him a victory in the state of Georgia. In November 2025 a new special prosecutor dropped the charges, citing the difficulty of prosecuting a case against a sitting president. Trump boasted on social media of his victory over an “illegal, unconstitutional, and un-American hoax,” and continued to push the lie that Democrats stole the election.
Meanwhile, Trump and his sons once again are angling to enrich themselves:
Vicky Ge Huang of the Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump family’s cryptocurrency venture World Liberty Financial today applied for a national banking license from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, part of the Treasury Department. A banking license would integrate the Trump family’s cryptocurrency more fully into mainstream finance.
If the Treasury Department issues the license—a potential outcome that critics say reveals a major conflict of interest for the president—the president and chair of the new company would be Zach Witkoff, whose father is the son of Trump’s envoy to Russia Steve Witkoff, who the Wall Street Journal recently reported had been handpicked for his role by Russian president Vladimir Putin. The younger Witkoff started World Liberty Financial in 2024 with Trump’s sons Don Jr., Eric, and Barron.
That takes us back to the busy intersection of Venezuela, oil, and Trump. The latest news regarding Caracas makes the Trumpian plans smell even more like a grift than they already did. Cox Richardson writes:
Today, Energy Secretary Chris Wright told an audience at a Goldman Sachs energy industry event in Miami, Florida, that the United States will take control of all oil from Venezuela for the foreseeable future. Lisa Desjardins and Nick Schifrin of PBS NewsHour reported this afternoon that Trump administration officials have told lawmakers that they plan to put the money raised from their seizure of Venezuelan oil into bank accounts outside the U.S. Treasury. Desjardins clarified that “[s]ources said they understood these as similar [to] or decidedly ‘off-shore’ accounts.”
Yesterday, Trump announced that, as president of the United States, he would control the money from the sale of Venezuelan oil.
Could a chunk of that money wind up in the president's own pocket? Nah, the Donald would never think of that. Finally, Cox Richardson reports on the latest in Trump's never-ending threats:
The same account posted: “After long and difficult negotiations with Senators, Congressmen, Secretaries, and other Political Representatives, I have determined that, for the Good of our Country, especially in these very troubled and dangerous times, our Military Budget for the year 2027 should not be $1 Trillion Dollars, but rather $1.5 Trillion Dollars. This will allow us to build the ‘Dream Military’ that we have long been entitled to and, more importantly, that will keep us SAFE and SECURE, regardless of foe. If it weren’t for the tremendous numbers being produced by Tariffs from other Countries, many of which, in the past, have ‘ripped off’ the United States at levels never seen before, I would stay at the $1 Trillion Dollar number but, because of Tariffs, and the tremendous income they bring, amounts being generated, that would have been unthinkable in the past (especially just one year ago during the Sleepy Joe Biden Administration, the Worst President in the History of our Country!), we are able to easily hit the $1.5 Trillion Dollar number while, at the same time, producing an unparalleled Military Force, and having the ability to, at the same time, pay down Debt, and likewise, pay a substantial Dividend to moderate income Patriots within our Country!”
Simon Rosenberg of The Hopium Chronicles wrote: “Trump has gone completely mad.”
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