Welcome to The Logoff: Hi readers, we’re on the second day of fallout after the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good, 37, by an ICE agent in Minneapolis on Wednesday. Today, I want to focus on one narrow part of the story: the Trump administration’s response.
What’s happening? It took the administration no time at all after Good’s killing to land on a narrative: Almost immediately, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson described Good as a “violent rioter” who “weaponized her vehicle.” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said Good’s attempt to drive away from officers was “an act of domestic terrorism.”
Even as video and eyewitness testimony emerged contradicting those accounts, the administration has stuck with it: At the White House podium today, Vice President JD Vance said that Good’s actions were “an attack on federal law enforcement, an attack on law and order, and attack on the American people.”
Why does this matter? There’s the obvious: What the Trump administration is saying does not match what actually occurred, as careful analysis of witness video by news organizations has confirmed.
But the brute-force way they’re going about it, and the administration’s utter refusal to admit fault along the way, is what makes it especially noteworthy. The underlying urge — attack, attack, attack — is one of the most clearly Trumpian tics of the second Trump administration.
What’s the context? There’s precedent for this kind of histrionic response out of the Trump administration. In a similar incident last year, a woman shot by a Customs and Border Protection agent in Chicago was accused of “ambushing” the agents and described as a “domestic terrorist.” She survived, and the criminal case against her was dismissed. Other ICE accounts of shootings have also been disputed.
What’s the big picture? There’s plenty to be said about how the Trump administration’s account of the shooting distorts reality. But the biggest takeaway is less what they’re saying than the way they’re saying it: at top volume, as aggressively as possible, and with utter disregard for any possibility of consequences.
