Next Steps in Minneapolis

I wonder what element of all this really spooked Trump and the Family:

Mr. Trump did not suggest during the meeting that either Ms. Noem’s or Mr. Lewandowski’s jobs were at risk, the people said. But it was the latest sign the president is concerned about the bipartisan criticism of the administration’s response to the killing of Alex Pretti, who was shot at roughly 10 times by immigration agents on Saturday after he was apparently filming them with his phone camera.

Ms. Noem has been the face of the administration’s immigration crackdown, and she has been among the most vocal in spreading false accusations against Mr. Pretti, including labeling him a “domestic terrorist.”

The Oval Office meeting also included several of Mr. Trump’s top aides, including Susie Wiles, his chief of staff, Karoline Leavitt, his press secretary, and Steven Cheung, his communications director. Stephen Miller, a top aide to Mr. Trump who oversees the administration’s immigration strategy, was not part of the meeting.

Trump tends to have a pretty good grip on what MAGA is thinking, so perhaps he’s sensing some cracks on the whole “white gun owners being shot in the street” angle. Trump also knows the difference between good and bad TV coverage, and I suspect he’s under no illusions that the on-video execution of Pretti is going to play out well for him, even on Fox. Congressional GOP is also a lot more yappy than usual, which probably means that there’s significant discontent under the surface. I’m sure that the White House has polling and I suspect that it looks just terrible. WSJ has a bit more on the internal politicking:

Roughly 48 hours after the shooting, Trump decided to change course, moving to pull back one of his administration’s most high-profile and divisive immigration-enforcement campaigns. By the end of the day Monday, Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar who advocated for a more targeted approach to deportations, was en route to Minneapolis to take charge. Bovino, the face of the hard-edge approach employed in Minnesota, was leaving the state.

Trump’s pivot came after Republican lawmakers and other allies raised concerns that he was squandering public support for his signature campaign issue and senior administration officials increasingly saw the chaotic scenes in Minneapolis as a political liability. Gun rights advocates, normally steadfast allies of Trump, publicly criticized administration officials for criticizing Pretti for carrying a gun during protest activity. State officials said Pretti had a permit to carry the weapon.

In the process, Trump appeared to take sides—for now—in a simmering debate that has been playing out quietly in the administration. Over the past year, Trump’s more hard-line aides, including Noem and her top adviser Corey Lewandowski, have pushed for missions that include roving patrols doing street sweeps in large liberal cities. Homan and others have favored a more methodical but slower approach to go after immigrants with criminal histories or final deportation orders, according to people familiar with the matter.

I’ll add that “elderly President incapable of managing his subordinates” is a key part of any narrative about dementia… and it’s interesting to note that this kind of public drama never happened in the Biden administration.