President Donald Trump’s domestic militia troops are still wearing masks as they terrorize American communities. But the mask is off the Trump regime’s fascist brutality, especially since the execution-style killing of VA nurse Alex Pretti by federal immigration officers and the brazenly dishonest smear campaign waged against the murdered man by top administration officials.
Millions of Americans saw the truth virtually in real time thanks to video taken at the scene. Pretti was using his phone to peacefully document federal officials’ actions in Minneapolis. He came to the aid of a woman who had been shoved to the ground. Then he was attacked by multiple masked officers and without justification shot multiple times in the back while he lay on the ground.
The regime’s well-practiced propaganda machine swung into action immediately, trying to frame media coverage with outlandish lies.
The Department of Homeland Security and its leader Kristi Noem lied that Pretti “wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement” and “violently resisted.” White House deportation czar Stephen Miller called Pretti a “would-be assassin” who “tried to murder law enforcement.” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth responded to the Pretti killing by telling ICE officials “we have your back 100 percent” and posting “ICE > MN.” Right-wing pundits parroted the official line, suggesting that Pretti was to blame for his own killing.
This has been the administration’s go-to strategy in previous incidents of violence at the hands of federal law enforcement. And the administration’s MAGA lapdogs once again played their part, spreading the lies and smears.
But it isn’t working this time. The video evidence is just too clear. And that made the response by administration officials too obviously dishonest and dishonorable.
It’s long past time for Republican leaders to stop lying to themselves and to the American people about the nature of the regime’s mass-deportation project and the culture of lawlessness, sadistic cruelty and unaccountability that administration officials have encouraged among those carrying it out.
This is way beyond the professed priority of removing violent criminals. It’s an ethnic cleansing project designed to crush political dissent. It involves the deployment of intimidation, violence and near totalitarian levels of digital surveillance against Americans to suppress dissent and the freedom of speech.
Where are the conservatives who once feared big government? Apparently, many of them fear Trump more than they fear Americans losing their freedom.
Of course, some conservatives and libertarians, Republicans and former Republicans, have courageously spoken out, warning about Trump and rallying opposition to his authoritarian actions well before the recent killings in Minneapolis.
Now a few more Republican lawmakers and media figures are finding their voices amid public revulsion at the killings of Pretti and Renee Good and the number of people dying at the hands of or in the custody of Noem’s masked marauders. It is becoming easier to speak out because the wanton violence being deployed against immigrants and U.S. citizens defending their neighbors has made Miller’s anti-immigrant crusade deeply unpopular.
Every voice raised in defense of freedom and the Constitution is welcome — even essential.
But for people in positions of power, speaking out is not enough. Congress must refuse to fund Trump’s war against American cities. Members of Congress from both parties must demand accountability for the lawlessness that runs through this administration from top to bottom, from the Oval Office to the streets and detention centers where people are wrongfully held, beaten and killed.
People on the streets of Minneapolis have demonstrated a truly inspiring and heroic commitment to defending their community and the people who live there. They have braved bone-chilling cold and the reckless deployment of chemical agents. They have risked being maimed by “less lethal” weapons or killed by a masked gunman who feels empowered to respond with brutality.
If schoolteachers, shopkeepers, bartenders and nurses can brave all that, certainly more members of Congress should be able to find the strength to withstand social media mockery from the president and the threat of a primary challenge funded by Elon Musk.
ICE and border patrol officers may be able to hide behind their masks for now, but for the people who enable and celebrate their cruelty, there will be no place to hide from the well-deserved contempt of their fellow Americans or the judgment of history.
