US President Donald Trump indicates a willingness to compromise after nationwide protests.Image: keystone
Jan 27, 2026, 3:58 p.mJan 27, 2026, 3:58 p.m
Under the impression of nationwide protests against his rigorous deportation policy and the brutal actions of highly armed emergency services in Minneapolis, US President Donald Trump is indicating a willingness to compromise.
After a phone call with Trump, the mayor of Minneapolis announced that some federal officials would be withdrawn from the large city in the state of Minnesota starting Tuesday. According to media reports, after the fatal shooting of another US citizen in Minneapolis, the controversial commander of the border protection authority, Gregory Bovino, is also to be withdrawn from there.
Jacob Frey, Mayor of Minneapolis.Image: keystone
On Saturday, nurse Alex Pretti was shot dead on the street during an operation by federal officers in the city in the north of the USA – although, judging from video recordings, he apparently did not pose an acute threat to the emergency services. This caused anger against Trump’s government and the suppression of protests to continue to boil over. Even within the Republican Party, critical voices were raised and the Democrats were threatening to block the budget.
After a conversation with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz – like Mayor Frey, a Democrat – Trump’s government announced that hardliner Tom Homan would in future monitor the operations of the thousands of federal officers ordered to Minneapolis. The former interim head of the immigration agency ICE has long been entrusted with the overall supervision of Trump’s deportation policy.
Trump has to fear a “shutdown”.
Trump’s apparent giving in could be explained by the fact that he himself is dependent on the opposition’s willingness to compromise. The Democrats took up the wave of protest on the streets and are now taking it to the US Parliament: They are threatening to only approve a legislative package for the budget if budget funds for the migration authorities are excluded from it. They want to block the financing of the deportation raids for the time being.
With the US interim budget expiring on Friday, the clock is ticking for Trump and his Republicans. If there is no agreement with the Democrats, large parts of government business would come to a standstill again. Such a “shutdown” already took place from October to November last year – it went down as the longest in US history.
Commander in a conspicuous coat
With the imminent departure of the controversial commander of the border protection authority, according to the media, perhaps the best-known face of the martial deportation operations would disappear from view. After Pretti’s death, Bovino described the federal officials as “victims” and also showed little awareness of injustice in the case of the fatal shooting of US citizen Renée Good by an ICE officer in the same city at the beginning of January. His rigorous demeanor, along with a flashy coat, led critics to draw comparisons to Nazi methods and the infamous Gestapo. Bovino rejected this.
According to reports from the US broadcasters CNN and CBS News, the change in strategy that has now been announced also affects officials from Bovino’s border protection force. In his description of the phone call with Trump, Minneapolis Mayor Frey did not give any details about how many federal officials would be withdrawn from the region. But he made it clear that he would work to ensure that more follow. “The President agreed that the current situation cannot continue like this,” Frey wrote on Platform X. He will meet with Homan on Tuesday to discuss further steps.
Government spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt did not give a clear answer on Monday when journalists asked whether Bovino would stay in Minnesota. He is an “outstanding professional” and will continue to lead border patrols across the country, she said. The deputy head of the Department of Homeland Security later denied media reports that Bovino had been relieved of his duties entirely. A few hours earlier, Trump had announced that he would send Homan to Minnesota.
Nationwide outrage over Trump’s administration
In Minneapolis, there is particularly great outrage against the US government; the Renée Good case and Alex Pretti’s death have deeply shaken the city. The brutal actions of masked emergency services, who drag people from the streets into cars in democratically governed cities and even take small children with them, have caused horror across the country and beyond the USA in recent months. The Trump administration is accused of undermining the democratic right to peaceful protest.
Against this background, Trump’s spokeswoman Leavitt tried to give the impression that Trump wanted to clarify the Pretti case transparently and let the facts speak for themselves. Since the US government and its subordinate authorities under Trump repeatedly spread false claims or at least selectively report the truth, many no longer believe their accounts.
Federal authorities want to investigate the case themselves
Minnesota’s government also criticizes the fact that the investigation into Pretti’s death should not be conducted by local authorities, but by the FBI and a law enforcement agency within the US Department of Homeland Security. With a court injunction, the state obtained that no important evidence could be destroyed or altered.
The government was quick to portray the fatal shooting as a legitimate act of self-defense, although video footage of the incident gives a different impression. Trump pointed out that Pretti had a loaded gun and two additional magazines with him. When asked by reporters whether the president would describe Pretti as a “domestic terrorist,” as Trump’s deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller had done, Leavitt replied: “I have not heard the president characterize Mr. Pretti in that way.”
Court: ICE chief must appear in person
In another case, the chief federal judge of the state of Minnesota summoned the head of the immigration agency ICE for multiple violations of court orders. “The court’s patience has run out,” wrote Judge Patrick J. Schlitz. He ordered the head of the agency, Todd Lyons, to appear on site in person this Friday because ICE had repeatedly violated court orders.
Schlitz acknowledged that ordering an agency head to be personally summoned to court was an “extraordinary step” – “but the extent of ICE’s violations of court orders is also extraordinary, and more lenient measures have been tried and failed.” (hkl/sda/dpa)